I was born in Milena, yes that ancient fallen empire whose advances in science, literature, mathematics and even philosophy are the cornerstones of the world. Some even say the Milenians were descended directly from the old gods, the great Titans that forged the world. For a time I believed that tripe, though from what I've learned on my travels I think it more likely I am closer to an Aasimar than an actual demigod. Besides the realm of Blackmoor was destroyed long before the Milenians and their gods rose to their heights of power, so the world was created long before them.
Regardless of my origins, I guess you could consider myself a heroine of those times. I slew the half fiend hydra of Hesslyte, recovered the platinum hoofs of Vhaltra, raised a golden dragon, I even defeated the Mask of Hephaston, as well as many more incredible deeds. I accomplished so much in that distant age that even now I am not sure what is myth and what is a construct of my hazy memory.
As I conquered all around me, I heard tales of Impossible things in distant lands across the oceans, the early Vedic states. I could have stayed, with my love the Prince of Telphi, but in my hubris I flew to those wondrous lands atop my dragon.
I saw many amazing sights, golden palaces, the Red Mountain, temples to a thousand gods, snakemen and tiger spirits, Djinns and Efreets. I soon forgot about my native Milenia as I fell in love with the lands now known as Vinraj.
Javindar rolled his eyes as he suppressed a yawn towards the militia girl's boring exposition. He was pretty sure he had already heard this, or at least a similar tale from the Baroness or perhaps from Nahbob. He couldn't be bothered to remember.
As the Prince considered interrupting the story, he was given a nudge by his servant Nahbob, followed by a 'please endure this' look.
Javindar sighed. The militia girl and the man in yellow know something about the Black Scrolls, and he would endure this tedious boredom to discover it.
While there were many mysterious and impossible things that I saw in those first Vedic cities, all of it was threatened when the Asuras arrived, strange creatures similar to demons, but with a penchant for multiple limbs and even heads. As a heroine, I naturally wished to join with the armies that the Rajahs and the Sultans of that land raised, but their damnable caste system refused my aid.
Ah, I see you shift uncomfortably at the mention of caste but I do not blame you. It is who you are, though I am disappointed that so much has changed in your lands save for that outdated cultural system to keep the masses down. But enough of my criticisms, to join the battle I masqueraded as a man. No, not with magics, back then mundane magical items were not as common. A simple haircut and some loose armor were sufficient to fool my allies. Given that I was a foreigner, it was not too hard to disguise my voice either.
As the battles against the Asura raged, I soon realized our enemy was legion. No matter how many times we defeated them they raised more of their kind from the infernal realms. It was then that I discovered that they had somehow weakened the seals of Rovagug.
Rovagug? Yes, your servant knows, but I will enlighten you. A fallen god that required all the other gods to defeat. It is said that it took an artifact from Blackmoor itself to finally defeat him, and all the gods to chain his unconscious form to some terrible oubliette. Even imprisoned, his dreams and stirrings are the cause of great disasters. Earthquakes, hurricanes, the spawns of Rovagug, and of course various tears of reality around the world. These tears linked the world we know to various dark dimensions. The Abyss, Abaddon, California, the Nine Hells to name a few.
Ahh, you've heard this part of the tale, than you know that ancient mystics or perhaps even the young gods sealed these tears to prevent them from flooding the world with their evil.
As you can guess by now, some Asura lord had a scroll that could suppress the magic on these seals, and he was using it on the tear in the jungles in the land now known as Nashput. No, that's not right. The scroll was using the Asura to disrupt the wards. It's hard to explain but it was the driving force for the impending Armageddon. Where had this scroll come from? I am not sure, though I've heard tales that it was the accumulation of dark knowledge from Boccob's library, or perhaps secret pages written by Asmodeus himself from the great contract to be used to his benefit sometime in the future.
Regardless of its origin, being a heroine I took it upon myself to stop this scroll. Destroying an artifact however was not easy. My dragon and I flew to the northern realms to recover the blade Greyiron, a weapon forged by the ancient Grey Dwarves for the Vanir to battle their eternal foes the Jotun. It was forged with the powder tooth of the Midgard serpent, one of the Spawns of Rovagug that I mentioned earlier. The blade agreed to my quest and choose to join us. Yes, it was intelligent, one of the first and most powerful intelligent blades forged and agreed to accompany us on our quest. With Greyiron in hand I returned to Vinraj to battle the Asura King.
While it was a crucial battle, the fight was trivial. My dragon simply landed on the unsuspecting Asura Lord. Pinned, I quickly dispatched him and went about destroying his scroll. Unfortunately, it was not as easy as it seemed. The scroll you see, is like the blackest of night. An item of pure corruption. Even the mighty blade Greyiron, forged from fiery blood of a Linnorm and hardened from the heart of a Rime nymph, was not immune to its darkness.
Though I managed two cuts to the scroll, the darkness I released with each stroke was too much for even I. Imagine drowning, but not in water but in corruption. It was too much even for a heroine of mythic Milenia such as I. As you can imagine, I stumbled and fell, conscious but unable to defend myself.
I would have been overwhelmed by the Asura at that point, had not my dragon rescued me. While the darkness was overwhelming, my old friend and ally sensed something was amiss and simply scooped us into my saddle blanket and flew away.
Us? Besides myself, I refer to the blade and the fragments of the scroll.
Without the scroll disrupting the wards, the tears closed and the Asura were scattered. Those that did not flee back into Abaddon were hunted relentlessly by the various holy orders dedicated to Puranas, Khivana, and Uldah.
Javindar could not contain himself and finally interrupted the militia girl's dubious story.
"So let me get this straight. The Asura army was defeated, you not only recovered the scroll, but you managed to tear it up. All of this what? Two thousand years ago? Maybe longer?"
"Approximately five if she is a Milenian as she claims," corrected Nahbob.
"Regardless. It sounds like victory, unconditional victory. If what you say is true, why are we in such a position now."
The girl shook her head and sighed.
The scroll survived, though in fragments. Even dragon fire, acid, and other mundane and magical means could not destroy it. They were still powerful artifacts and individually they could disrupt the wards on this world. Also, while I could not prove it, I could also sense a piece of sentience to them, but none that I could comprehend. Regardless of their danger, I knew that if reassembled they posed a greater threat than what they were currently.
While I survived the destruction of the scroll, my body was broken, and even to this day I have never fully recovered. More than that, even my brief contact with the scroll I felt its dark tendrils gripping my mind. Though I did not realize it at the time, I see and regret now that it affected my decision making at that most crucial moment.
At that point of time, I could have asked for help. Assembled a council of the wisest Gurus, Archmages, and Clerics to guard and protect these fragments, but once again the ancient curse of Hubris struck at my core. In my pride as a champion of Milenia, I thought my companions and myself were better suited to handle the fragments than any coalition of ….lesser beings. I took a fragment, the piece I named the scroll of power, and guarded it in the middle kingdoms. My dragon took his fragment, the scroll of prophecy, to the eastern realms of the Emerald Throne and the Dragon Empires, while Greyiron took his piece to the northern realms of Midgard.
Yes, even Greyiron took a fragment, the scroll of sundering. Though he is a sword, his will is …overwhelming. He could easily take control of a lesser mind and force them to his will, though often times he does it subtly, making his wielder think that he is in control.
"Wait….what about the shield maiden?"
"What shield maiden?" asked the militia girl.
"err….I thought the shield maiden of the hero took the scroll."
"There is no shield maiden. I suppose our story has been changed over the years, which is not surprising considering the patriarchal nature of Vinraj. They probably could not accept the fact that the hero that saved them was a woman."
"Or…maybe your memory has played tricks on you. Maybe you are the shield maiden and over the years your recollections has changed and you believe yourself to be the hero now," suggested Javindar.
Nahbob tapped the Prince on the shoulder and shook his head vigorously when he got his attention. Javindar sighed and waved the militia girl to continue with her convoluted story.
With the scrolls divided we headed for the different parts of the world to keep our charges safe. For millennia this arrangement worked. While empires rose and fell, we kept the scrolls hidden. Though not without a toll.
To begin with, there is the corruption we must battle. The blade Greyiron eventually went mad, and it is his scroll that I assume the Asuras currently possess. The dragon to the east avoided this by placing it in the care of savages, and acting as their guide. These primitive warriors were too simple to be easily corrupted, yet even they kept their fragment under lock and key. Despite this, the savages unknowingly harnessed the scroll's power, as they brought down kingdom after kingdom, but fortunately their destruction has been relatively 'contained' by the dragon's guidance.
As I mentioned before, I never recovered from my injury and could not summon my heroic spirit or powers like I could before. Still, I was given a sort of immortality, which would explain why I am still alive today. I'm not sure if it's from my proximity to the scroll fragment, or my previous deeds, but I cannot die by regular mean. Not that I haven't tried.
Living an eternity is not a great of blessing as one is lead to believe. The scroll slowly drained me, making me weaker…and more..how should I say, mortal. More importantly, you lose your friends., loved ones, and even your purpose. It tempted me all these years to seize it and gain a power I could never dream of, but at least in that aspect I remained true to my heroic self. Still, after nearly five millennia I gave up hope and sacrificed myself into a volcano, hoping the flames would destroy me like they would a common troll or other regenerators. I was selfish, and placed my scroll in an ancient tomb before I attempted to take my life, but in the end it proved for nought.
As you can see I am still alive. Two decades of painful regeneration was my reward. When I finally regained my body, to my shock the tomb and scroll were already plundered.
"I knew you lost your scroll, but I did not know you attempted suicide," said the man in yellow, breaking his silence.
"It is not something I am proud of," said the girl with head down. "It took a lot of self-reflection to regain my purpose in life again."
Though Javindar still thought her tale was dubious, he could at least understand her. It reminded him of his painting he had commissioned and wondered if he should share it with her, even though it wasn't completed.
A Rakshasa lord had taken the scroll. I am not sure if it was by coincidence or if the scroll somehow lead him there, but he proved difficult to both track and defeat.
I followed his elusive trail for decades but he was always one step ahead of me. Not surprising since Rakshasas are masters of stealth and shapeshifting.
Once I cornered him after he slew some minor Sultan, but he easily defeated me and devoured my flesh for my effort. It took a year before I could take up arms against him again and his trail had long gone cold.
For several decades I attempted to find his whereabouts again, but it wasn't until I followed some wild rumor about Rakshasas in Grom did I find something curious.
A man, a normal man with remarkable powers had somehow bested the Rakshasa that I was not able to. A strange man that aptly identified himself as a Demon Hunter. He took the scroll and remarkably was able to resist the scroll's physical torments as well as its corruption. I am not sure if it's through some secret training, or if the man's will is simply indomitable, but he can resist the scroll's temptation like none I've ever met before.
"You mention physical torments?" asked Nahbob.
The militia girl nodded. " The scroll sometimes summoned demons and other lower planar creatures. It wasn't much of a problem at first but recently it had begun to summon large packs of them."
"The shadow demons?" guessed Javindar.
"Aye."
"This man can resist the corruption?" interrupted the man in yellow.
"Yes, but not easily. He needs assistance from spirits and…"
"Wait..the drunk in the shadows is your chosen one?" asked Javindar as he finally put things together.
"Someone call me?" said a man as he staggered out from behind a wooden pillar holding a half empty wine bottle.
Javindar stared at the unremarkable slovenly dressed man and recoiled from the stench of alcohol on him.
"Yes, for whatever reason this man now has two fragments, and not only that, he has the blade Greyiron," said the militia girl, herself in disbelief. "He can bear the burdens that none of us can, and all it requires is a bit of booze."
The man in yellow stroked his beard as he considered her story before turning towards Nahbob. "Rina has told her story as requested. Now magician, you said you could locate the last scroll."
Nahbob shrugged. "Well, not in the way you are used to. I don't think divination of our subject is possible given its inherent nature. However, I am a student of magic, and I did learn a technique from the Baroness Stille. If you can't divine a person directly, you can do so indirectly. For example I am certain I cannot find the Asura Lord that possesses the scroll, but perhaps I can find one of his minions. "
The militia girl's eyes lit up. "Oh? One of its minions? Like his generals or assassins? You think you can scry the location of an Abyssall lord easily?"
"Well, not easily but I do have a focus that might help," replied Nahbob as he pointed towards Javindar's scimitar.