Rumours have started to spread amongst the people in the Village of Paws, rumours that are both troubeling and fascinating. They are all different but yet similar. The people talk about a shadow wandering the forrest around the village, a shadow in different shapes. Some claim to have seen a big white bear, others a wolf, some even say they have seen a ghost of a great wizard king, since long dead, a wizard king of great powers. Their minds can't rest and the tales in the taverns at night grow balder and wilder. One hunter after another tried thier best to track this being, to seek it out to find it's true identity but thuss far no luck. The only thing all the tales have in common is that the figure in the woods are all clad i white. Is this an ill omen, a shadow that have come to haunt them from an old age long gone or is it something good that have come to protect them? No one knows but people start to raise their voices for this to be investigated by their own mighty wizard, Jupiter the Grey.
A boy, no more than ten years old, came running and screaming into the village last night. It took almost one hour before he was calm enough to tell his parents what he had seen. It turned out that this boy, Etherion, had been out late that evening to pick some moon flowers for his love in life, a neighbour girl named Alinae. As he got closer to the glade he knew where the growing ground for these mythical and beautiful flowers he heard a strange, low, humming voice through the woods. Curious as he was, he was after all a boy, he began to sneak closer to the glade from where the voice came from, he just needed to see what it was. The glade bathed in moonlight and the flowers were shining like spot lights on the ground, big, white and mysterious. In the middle of the glade he could see the shapes of a man, all clad in white drapes, sitting on his knees in a sea of flower, humming in a mythical strange language, words long forgotten. The humming felt like a melody and the man moved his body in rhythm to it, the strength of the voice went form low to strong and back to low and it felt like the air came alive, vibrating. Dragon flies begun to appear in the glade, first just one, then a second and all the sudden there were hundreds of them, flying around the white figure, somehow they looked strange, not real, like they had been summoned by someone or something. The boy decided to take a closer look, he moved slowly and silent from one tree to another and was soon at the very edge of the tree line when he all the sudden happened to step on a small branch. The branch broke with a silent "twick" but it was enough. The figure stopped dead silent in his chanting, the fireflies stopped in the air and for a fraction of a second everything stood still. The boy stood as frozen staring at the scenery and all the sudden the figure turned around facing him, with cold blue eyes that penetrated the boy all the way into his soul. The figure rose from his kneeling position in one swift move, pointed the tip of his staff towards the boy and uttered one word, "gwatho!" so strong that the boy was thrown backwards. When the boy looked up the figure was gone but a swarm of fireflies came right at him, he rose to his feet as fast as he could and ran as fast as he could for safety. He never looked back to see the fire flies disappear into thin air.
Belock the Sane woke up sweaty and light headed, it was still dark outside and the village was silent, maybe too silent? The faint sounds from the forrest surrounding the Village of Paw he was so used to hear now echoed silent in his ears .... was he still dreaming? He slowly rose from his bed to peek out the window to see if he could figure out what was wrong ... nothing. The lights on the streets were lit, the dawn were yet a few hours away and a small cat were walking from light to light sniffing and looking for a nightly snack. Strange, why is it so silent and why did I wake up he thought. The autumn was on its way but the summer heat still kept the small village in its grip, also at night, but even so Belock felt cold and strangely dizzy. His night garbs were wet of sweat and his head were now aching, he lit a candle and took his cloths off of him to change, as he pulled the shirt over his head he almost fell to the ground ... so dizzy ... what is going on? He put the shirt on a chair and stop dead in his movement, slowly he turned his head to look back on the shirt he just took off. It was covered in blood .... Carefully he raised his hands to feel his ears, they were wet and sticky, and his hand came back red and bloody. Belock screamed, he screamed again but didn't hear a sound ... All went black.... Belock woke up with memories of a bad dream, actually memories of two bad dreams all tangled together as one, he remembered something about darkness, blood and silence. He felt his ears, they were just where they were supposed to be and the faint noises form the street outside his window were as they always been. It was early morning but something else troubled his mind and then he remember the other dream, the dream with the white wizard... what had he said to him, what strange vision he had seen... what did it mean? Some words seemed to stick into his mind, "Sevig thu uan, doltha-abonnen", what did they mean? The vision ended with a feeling of big pain and darkness ....
The old man closed the tome of shrines he finally found in the possession of the old lich in the catacombs under the mansion in the hedge maze. The undead had put up a fierce but short fight when he realized his precious book were in danger. The white wizard had no problem to send this undead to his final rest though and sacrificed his fame to assure the old lich finally found peace. "I wonder what happened to Relvinian" the old man thought to himself as he lit his pipe and let a ring of smoke shoot out from his mouth. "That lich! It must have been ... no it couldn't .. but yet..", the thought was intriguing but the old man pushed it aside, this was no time for side tracks, that would be a riddle to explore at a later date. "So, what have we found out thuss far then ..." "Moonflowers in full bloom, holy water and the shrine of spirituality, it can't be a coincident, it's more to it than what meets the eye", he thought for himself. Could it finally be the right shrine, after so many years of searching. He couldn't believe it but all evidence pointed in that direction, he only needed to verify one more thing and he sure didn't look forward to it. He needed to read the book of Spirituality. It was not by accident he had left this book unread until the last moment, the book only existed in one copy, could not be copied, needed starlight to be read and only existed in one place in Sosaria, in the Star room, deep below Terathan keep, a place even he feared. But there were no going back, he needed to find this last piece of the puzzle to fully understand the full potentials of his ring, Luin'aur, the blue flame. Maybe he could ask the grey wizard to join him in this task. After all, they were from the same orden and once upon a time as close as brothers, long before their paths took them in different directions. Maybe it was time to walk the same path again .... after so many years ...
Jupiter were in his library studying an old partial complete collection of books he just had retrieved from the lost lands, Tavara Sewle's Journals, Lysander's Notebooks and Grimmoch Drummels's daily journals, when the messenger arrived. A light tap on the door disturbed the old wizard, how he hated to be disturbed when he was in the middle of something ... but then again, wasn't he always? Jupiter carefully closed the book he was reading. "Enter" he said. "Parden me master wizard but I was sent to thee with this message and was told to deliver it in great haste without delay" the man said. Juipter studied him deeply, he could tell he had been on the road for a long time with little to none food and very few hours of rest. "Well you better hand it over to me then" he replied with a demanding tone in his voice. As soon as the man took out the letter from his bag Jupiters eyes froze on a small but familiar sigil in silver, it was the sigil of his orden, Orithil Othui, "The seventh moon". Carefully he studied the sigil, reluctant to open it, whatever were in there it could not be good news. The messenger still stood glooming int he door and his stares started to irritate Jupiter. "Be gone messenger, this is not for your eyes!" he demanded and the poor man darted out the door quicker than a thief from jail. Jupiter slowly opened the envelope and carefully picked up the note inside. He read. Dear Jupiter the Grey, It has been many moons since we last saw each other and I know we chosen different paths in this world but I really need your help to reveal a mystery and I am afraid I can not do this without you. You remember my ring, Luin'aur, the oldest gave me? I have been searching for its origin and I am so close to solve this now and grant knowledge to what it can used to do and if I'm right this ring could be used to bring peace and prosperity to Sosaria. However, i need to find one last clue and the only one who holds the key to this place is you my brother. I need to venture to the Star room and read the book of Spirituality. /Curunir the White Jupiter put the letter down with shaky hand on his writing desk. "Curunir needs my help and he ask me to accompany him to the Star room, the hidden room beneath Terrathan keep couldn't he just ask for my head on a plate?" he thought but quickly came to his senses when he remember what the oldest had told them before their departure to Sosaria, "You will all be needed for this task, stay united". So cryptic at the time but now the pieces started to come together. "MESSENGER!" he shouted. In a heart beat the man came back, bowed almost to the floor stammering "yes my lord". "Where can I meet the man who gave you to deliver this note?" "He said he would be waiting for you in Occlo my lord" "Fine, let us ride!" A few days later Jupiter and the messenger entered Occlo, they got to know each other fairly well during the ride there so Jupiter offered the man, Hassan was his name, 100 gold pennies if he would like to come with him till the end of this journey. Since this was more money than Hasan had seen before in his life he gladly accepted, little did he know what was waiting for him. Curunir met Tremaine at the library, a local Sosarian wizard, who were thirsty for adventure and begged the white wizard to teach him every secret and trick in the art of magic, reluctantly Curunir had agreed to make him his apprentice. They were on their way to the magician store when they suddenly spotted Jupiter in the crowd. "Jupiter my brother, I didn't expect you this early, and with an adventurer at your side as well" "Hail brother, and you seem to be fine as well" Jupiter answered. The both men smiled at eachother. "Jupter my dear old friend we need to seek the book of Spirituality" "So I understood and I really don't like this idea, but I shall follow you on this journey and my friend Hassan here want to come with us" "That is fine by me, as will my apprentice Tremaine here, and I guess we will need both of them for this task, let's go, show me where you hid the key stone for Terrathan keep" "This way, I thought I never had to recover it" Off they went, through the city and down under it, in the deepest dungeon, where Jupiter a long time ago had hidden the key stone for entrance to Terrathan keep. Jupiter opened a gate with the help of the key stone and stepped quickly through it followed by Hassan, Curunir and Tremaine. They ventured over a ravine on a small rope to find the secret level to open the secret door to the Star room. Now time were short, they only had minutes to enter the door before it would be closed and the task would be impossible to finish. They ran .... All the sudden they were surrounded by darkness and scary noises could be heard from all around them "Push on, quicker!" Jupiter shouted. Finally they reached the door and darted through it closely followed by unnamed beasts and screams of agony all around them. They made it through just as the door closed but to a high price, both Hassan and Tremaine had been left behind. On the other side of the star lit room they found the book of Spirits. Curunir read it slowly and tried to find out the meaning of if. It was written in verse and a little hard to understand. Finally he was done. "Lets get out of this place, it gives me the creeps, that altar seem to shift colours" Jupiter had, smart as he was, brought a key stone back to his home, so he opened a portal and they stepped through into the light and tranquillity of the glade of spirituality. There it was, the source, it had been here all the time right before their eyes. They said their prayers to the ankh and sensed that this was a good beginning of something great, something that would change this world forever, just as their oldest had foreseen. Only one thought disturbed them in the middle of their feel of success, they still missed one brother, they needed to find Relvinian the Blue, without him this success would not be long lived ...
