Deep within the Northern Ithmia, the sacred birch of the forest stood
bathed in starlight. Its trunk and upraised branches resembled the vague
shape of a woman, hinting at the presence of Thalia, the Spirit of the
Northern Ithmia, within the ancient birch.

A chill wind rustled the reddening leaves of the tree, shaking a few
loose to drift forlornly to the ground. The birch itself seemed to sigh,
the branches sagging slightly as if shouldering a burden too great to
bear much longer.

It was the second year since the world had been plunged into darkness,
and autumn had arrived.

As Kalleah, the Spirit of the Hazel, had cautioned, the forests could
not survive without sunlight forever; the natural energy generated by
the sacred trees and the essences of each forest, directed by the
spirits of the forests, were a finite source. The forests were
languishing once more. Even the great Treekin had been discovered
sleeping, rooted firmly into the earth, entering into a state similar to
hibernation to conserve their life energies a while longer.

It was early autumn-time: the time that the lamassus had bade those at
the birth of the nightmare foal to return, and had bade all visitors to
the foal since. Amongst those who had returned and awaited patiently
were Delphinus Windancer, Elizabeth Jinx, Harmonia, and Dalavan of the
Ebon Fist.

Deeper within the Northern Ithmia, in a cavern below a star-shaped
building, a pair of intense blue eyes flickered wide open.

Apollonia sat up abruptly, clutching a wool cape around herself that a
kind priest had wrapped around her for warmth. Found abused and
unconscious six months before in this cavern beneath the planetarium
built by Tavarius, now known to be the undead prince Slith, the young
Oracle of the Mannaseh Swamp had remained there under the care of the
enigmatic lamassus, along with the nightmare foal birthed in that place.

Though her wounds had mostly healed under the strange creatures' tender
care, Apollonia's most dramatic disfigurement had not -- the removal of
her tongue from her mouth. In all this time, visitors had found her
healing but uncommunicative in any way, as if along with her tongue, her
prophetic visions had gone.

"Do you need something to eat or drink?" Elizabeth asked her. Apollonia
seemed not to hear; her eyes widened yet further, her chin lifting as
she gazed off into the distance. Her breathing slowed. Clearly within a
trance, Apollonia's lips shaped words. Yet only air escaped.

"Do you need something to write upon?" Elizabeth asked her.

"I'm not sure she can hear you," Delphinus said, frowning.

The young oracle slumped, her breath gradually returning to normal. Her
eyes fixed upon Elizabeth, and she nodded: Apollonia's first act of
communication since she had been found.

Elizabeth gave to Apollonia a blank letter and an eagle's feather, while
Delphinus contributed a flask of water and a cake of dried blue ink.
Mixing the ink with the water and dipping the feather shaft into it,
Apollonia smoothed the paper upon the ground and set to writing, slowly
and painstakingly.

"Below the earth, the keeper knows," Dalavan read aloud as Apollonia
wrote.

"Of knowledge lost in days of yore," he continued reading.

"That lies beyond the thousandth door."

"Sealed to conceal..."

Apollonia paused, and Dalavan did too, waiting for the her to drip more
water onto the dried ink and wet her quill before continuing to write.

Apollonia, the Oracle of the Mannaseh frowns in concentration.

"Sealed to conceal from ancient foes," Dalavan read.

And in this fashion they continued, Apollonia writing out the prophecy
she could no longer speak, until she finally set down the quill.

This was what was written upon the letter:

Below the earth, the keeper knows
Of knowledge lost in days of yore
That lies beyond the thousandth door,
Sealed to conceal from ancient foes.
The heritance in hand shall guide
To what the first has left behind.
The blessed child her crown must find,
And pierce the source of eventide.
Yet one remains whose succor sought
And gained shall secure us the day
But 'ware the price that you must pay.
Below the world, he who begot:
Sire of the son infernal,
To end the night eternal.

Elizabeth shuddered as the final words were set down. The four debated
their interpretations of this unusual prophecy. The "thousandth door"
was clearly the magical transplanar door that had been created
accidentally by the wizard Hycanthus, but what more?


"...Below the earth, the keeper knows..."

They came to a consensus that the "keeper" of the first line most likely
referred to the ghost Candlemas, the Last of the Lorewardens, who dwelt
in the Library of the Ancients in underground Azdun. Whie the rest
remained behind with Apollonia and the nightmare foal, Delphinus sped to
Azdun.

Approaching the elderly ghost, Delphinus questioned him about the
Thousandth Door, but Candlemas professed no knowledge of it, lapsing
instead into a lament about the decline of the Lorewardens and calling
himself a "useless old librarian". Eager to continue on and having
decided that the "sire of the son infernal" of the prophecy was likely
to mean Ugrach, the Lord of the Underworld and the father of Slith,
Delphinus abstained from further questioning the melancholy ghost.
Instead, the veteran explorer journeyed for the dangerous plane of the
Underworld, travelling there via the means of a root of the great tree
Yggdrasil.

To no one's surprise, Delphinus was roundly rebuffed by the ruler of the
Underworld, who met his queries with impatience and bloodthirst.
Luckily, he managed to make it out with his life and returned to the
group with Apollonia, where he shared the fruitlessness of his ventures.

Frustrated, Delphinus departed for Azdun to speak with Candlemas once
more, this time revealing to Candlemas the reason for his questions: the
prophecy. "Perhaps you can make something of it," he said to the
Lorewarden ghost, reciting Apollonia's rhymes in full.


"...of knowledge lost in days of yore..."

"Now I see why ye question me," Candlemas said thoughtfully once
Delphinus had finished. "You think I am this keeper?"

Delphinus nodded.

"You know the name Meran'tir, yes?" Candlemas asked.

"I do," Delphinus affirmed, remembering the histories he had read
describing the creation of the Lorewardens in the ages of Mythos, and
how they were slain nearly to extinction by a special squadron of
vampires led by Slith himself, before the War of Humanity even began.
"He and his sons were the first Lorewardens."

"Their tragic deaths at the hands of Slith and his vampire... it can't
be said that Meran'tir did not foresee this entirely," Candlemas said.
"No, he did not have the gift of foresight. What he had was the gift of
clear thought."

"Of course he envisioned that the knowledge of the Lorewardens might
pose a threat and need to be nullified." Candlemas paused. "That is why
he took the precaution of sealing off his private study from space and
time."

"I see."

Candlemas sighed. "Unfortunately, the knowledge of how to reach his
study was lost with Meran'tir's death. I know of it, as your oracle has
told, but that is all. So much lost with the deaths of those first
Lorewardens. I wish I could be of more assistance, truly."

Delphinus frowned thoughtfully. "It seems as though the Thousandth Door
may be used to gain entry to the study. But then, perhaps I'm
misinterpreting it."

Thanking Candlemas for his insights, Delphinus left the Library of the
Ancients. Stymied by the problem of how to use the Thousandth Door to
find Meran'tir's concealed study, he eventually retired to his grove to
think, having told Elizabeth all that he had learned from Candlemas.
Elizabeth, now with Xellan and Apollodorus, roamed across Sapience
seeking further clues to decipher the meaning of the prophecy. Several
days had now passed since Apollonia had penned her prophecy.

Meanwhile, more had congregated in the cavern beneath the planetarium:
Dumas s'Lessen, Rikeshar and Xadzia Trismegistus, Wylie Darkwind, and
others. Taking red ink and a quill offered by Dumas, water fetched by
Rikeshar, and a page ripped out of a journal of Wylie's, Apollonia
painstakingly wrote down her prophecy again for this group: the same as
she had written previously.

At this point, Elizabeth, Delphinus, and the others who had been
labouring to interpret the prophecy returned. They told the newcomers
what they knew, explaining what avenues had already been explored.
Acting on a hunch, Delphinus returned for the third time to the Library
of the Ancients.

Greeting the ghost Candlemas once more, Delphinus reminded Candlemas of
the Staff of the Lorewardens (see events #177), a relic handed down from
Lorewarden to Lorewarden, which the ghost now held. Could this not be
the 'heritance' of which the prophecy spoke? "It sounds as though it
will lead us..." Delphinus said. "I'm not quite sure how. The rest
speaks of the blessed child... that's a nightmare foal that was born six
months ago... and it sounds like she's to pierce Tavarius's ward after
finding her crown."

"Alas, I cannot leave my library," Candlemas mourned. "The magics that
keep me from the Soulrealm... I do not think they would protect me long
were I to depart." After some deliberation however, Candlemas agreed to
entrust the Staff to Delphinus temporarily.


"...that lies beyond the thousandth door,
Sealed to conceal from ancient foes..."

Meanwhile, Elizabeth had spearheaded the organisation of a large party
to locate the Thousandth Door, which tended to disappear and reappear at
random all around the world. The party had sent scouts searching all
corners of the world. Finally, Aerallyn Zelpher located the ephemeral
gateway, and without hesitation Delphinus stepped into it.


"...the heritance in hand shall guide,
To what the first has left behind..."

As before when anyone had entered that door, he found himself in a
strange octagonal room with identical doors on every surface. Praying
that the Staff of the Lorewardens would guide him, he reached out with
one hand while gripping the Staff with the other, chose a door at
random, and opened it...

...and found himself in the long-lost study of Meran'tir!

A preternatural hush permeated the windowless study, frozen away from
the usual entropy of time and space by the power of the first and
greatest Lorewarden. Thick, dusty velvet drapes hung everywhere, over
every wall and surface, and thick carpet beneath aided the drapes in
their conspiracy to drown out any sound that might intrude upon the
silence. Behind the drapes on the wall peeked the shapes of shelves long
emptied of any contents. In the centre of the room sat a wide desk, and
upon the desk was a broken quill, a dried inkwell, and a vellum-bound
journal yellowed with age, spidery handwriting spilling across its
pages.

The journal spoke of Meran'tir's experiments with the defensive magics
of the unicorns in the days before the War of Humanity, and his final
words before he sealed the study and left to face Slith and his vampire
lieutenants. In a drawer of the desk, Delphinus found a fragment of
unicorn horn from those very experiments.

With this, he returned to the prime material plane, where in keeping
with his promise he first returned the Staff of the Lorewardens to
Candlemas. "I suppose this old librarian might not be so useless after
all," said Candlemas, beaming happily at the success he had helped
wrought. The ghost wished Delphinus and his companions luck in
fulfilling the rest of the prophecy.


"...the blessed child her crown must find,
And pierce the source of eventide..."

Delphinus returned triumphant to the cavern beneath the planetarium,
where many had gathered to witness. Taking the fragment of unicorn horn,
he slowly and carefully placed it into the slight depression between the
nightmare foal's ears.

Prisms of multicoloured light flared wildly in all directions as the
oscillating
horn fragment adhered to the head of the foal. Ribbons of brilliant
white, silver, and gold energy emerged from the tip of the newly-joined
horn, spiralling down and around its tapered length while it expanded
and solidified.
Waves of radiant light cascaded over the head, neck, and back of the
beast, rippling closely over her ephemeral body as it coalesced into
stark white materiality.

Utterly enveloping the body of the foal, the currents of pulsating light
suddenly discharged in a powerful burst of blazing energy, knocking all
those present backwards. As they stood, they were gifted with the sight
of a young unicorn with a starlight-coloured mane and emerald-fire eyes!

"The first unicorn in ages," Dumas breathed in awe.

"What do we do now?" asked Elizabeth.

Delphinus said, "I am... not sure."


"...yet one remains whose succor sought
And gained shall secure us the day..."

The party set off for the Underworld, this time with the young unicorn.
Unfortunately, no sooner had they entered the foreboding plane did they
cross the path of Lord Kemnast, mightiest of the death knights, who slew
the majority of the party. The unicorn was untouched, however, and
Elizabeth and Riashain a'Bertal managed to survive.

While they awaited the slain members of their party to return from the
Halls of Maya and rejoin them in the Underworld, Riashain began
telepathically communicating with Ugrach. Unlike in his earlier
conversation with Delphinus, Ugrach this time proved much more
cooperative. Disquietingly, his willingness to grant an audience to the
party seemed to stem more from an interest in the unicorn than any
interest in their mission.

Navigating the treacherous paths of the Underworld and suffering further
casualties, the party gained entrance into the inner sanctum of Lord
Ugrach at last. Andante Vas'amaen, Dumas, Kameron Wyntersol, Harmonia,
Aneevah Acacia, Montago Vas'amaen-Ze'Dekiah, Kald Diamante, Ayrh Shiva,
Dharke, and others were among the party with Delphinus, Elizabeth, and
Riashain, that partook in this historic audience with the mighty and
terrible King of the Undead.

At first, Riashain and Delphinus attempted to convince Ugrach that it
was to his advantage to aid them against his disowned son, Slith. Ugrach
merely laughed callously at this. "The more he kills, the more soulbleed
my realm receives," sneered the King. "So why should I be concerned
about your deaths?"

"What must we do to gain your aid?" Riashain inquired.

Ugrach paused then, considering. Before answering Riashain, he began to
question the party on the manner of the ward around Slith, and what
information they had thus gained as to its weaknesses. When Delphinus
spoke of the journal he had found in Meran'tir's study, Ugrach had him
read aloud its contents, which detailed Meran'tir's study of the
unicorns' magic, which he had found to be "of a fundamental,
regenerative life energy rarely found in such pure, undiluted form --
sunlight is of a similar energy but is too greatly diffused by the time
it reaches us for practical use."

Delphinus continued to read of Meran'tir's experiments with harnessing
the life energy of the unicorns in new ways, the most natural being that
of "a magical shield or ward. Though perhaps the unicorns may learn to
create these shields themselves in time, for now they serve simply as
the source. Their energy is inherently ever-replenishing, ever-growing,
ever-interconnecting in dazzling, self-supporting patterns like a
spider's web; any breach to such a shield is quickly woven over and
healed."

The rest of the journal contained information on two method Meran'tir
had found that could weaken such a ward. The first was brute magical
force aimed at the shield, which would weaken it given enough force and
time. "Sadly," Meran'tir had written, "it appears that the bond between
energy source and shield is intricate; the moment the lifeshield
shattered, the unicorn supporting it fell lifeless, her horn severed
from her forehead."

In the other method, Meran'tir had created a shield around a unicorn "by
guiding her magic with myself outside of the shield, and another unicorn
directed his magic not at the shield, but at me." This had worked to
fell the shield as well without harming the shield's power source.

The rest of the journal spoke of Meran'tir's pain at sending the
unicorns to the Gods to assist them in the oncoming war against the
Triumvirate forces, and his final words before sealing the study and
departing to face Slith, an encounter from which the First of the
Lorewardens would never return.


"...but 'ware the price that you must pay.
Below the world, he who begot:
Sire of the son infernal..."

"Fascinating," mused Ugrach. "And you think Slith is now using the
focused energy of the sun, instead of the unicorns' power, to create
this ward of his, yes?"

Delphinus nodded.

"So therein you have written record of two ways proven to destroy such a
ward," Ugrach continued. "Brute force will break it, but it will also
destroy what powers the ward. In this case, that would be the sun. I
would enjoy the massive soulbleed arriving into my realm as a result of
the deaths on your planet that would cause, but I think perhaps you
would not."

"True," conceded Delphinus. "We would have to block the flow of energy
into the ward, then."

"The journal you read said that a unicorn's power directed upon the
ward's creator would destroy it. Of course, the conundrum here is that
Slith is within the ward." Ugrach smiled. "But there is a reason I do
not fear my foolish son."

"I created him, and part of all that I create, I keep. I have in my
possession a part of Slith's... well, you might call it a soul."

Ugrach revealed that within his bejewelled diadem lay a massive blood
ruby, within which he had captured a part of Slith's very essence, not
essence as gods or mortals would know it, but a part of Slith
nevertheless, and the reason Slith had never dared challenge his father
despite his own power. Though they could not reach Slith inside his
ward, they could attack him through the ruby.

Ugrach then agreed to give the party this ruby under one condition: that
after they had defeated his son using it, they would bring the corpse of
Slith back to him, claiming a desire to lay his creation to rest at long
last.

"But I need a guarantee that you will do this."

Delphinus asked, "I take it, then, that you wish to hold onto something
of ours until we maintain our half of the bargain?"

"My terms are this," said Ugrach. "A part of the soul of one of you, for
my part of the soul of my son. I shall release it when the corpse is
brought to me."

Dharke and Kameron both volunteered immediately, but were ignored by
Ugrach, who continued, "And it shall also be my prerogative to choose."

Raising his mailed hand, the Lord of the Undead pointed at the young
unicorn, to no one's surprise.

"Do you agree to this, young one?" Delphinus asked the unicorn. Riashain
shook his head at the equine pleadingly, but the unicorn nodded without
a moment of hesitation.

At Ugrach's beckoning, the young unicorn approached him and lowered her
head. Ugrach exhaled a chilling stream of air that solidified into an
icy dagger, its edge glistening with sharpness. Plucking the dagger out
of the air, Ugrach sliced once, lightly, across the unicorn's chest.

A bead of crimson blood appeared, and Ugrach cupped his hand beneath it,
catching it and bringing it to his mouth. He exhaled icily upon the drop
of blood, and it too solidified: into a large blood ruby, a wisp of what
appeared to be white smoke caught within it.

Ugrach reached up to take the gem-encrusted diadem from his head. He
turned it, looking carefully at the gems until his eyes landed upon a
particularly large blood ruby, a wisp of black smoke caught within its
depths. Ugrach carefully pried the blood ruby from the diadem and
replaced it with the ruby within which he had captured a part of the
unicorn's soul.

Giving the blood ruby he had pried from the diadem to Riashain, Ugrach
instructed, "Take it and go. Remember, bring my son's corpse back to me
so that I may lay him to rest, or this portion of the unicorn's soul is
forfeit to me."

Ugrach smiled then, displaying twin rows of perfectly normal and even
white teeth that were somehow even more disconcerting upon his face than
slavering fangs might have been.

"A word of caution," Ugrach warned. "My son has been absorbing power
from the sun for a long time now. His power will be great, although
perhaps the shock from breaking the ward will weaken him..."

"...but do not count on that."

Delphinus nodded. "We will make it a point to muster the mightiest
warriors mortalkind has to offer."

"One that can withstand more than a few blows from my deathknights would
be wise," Ugrach advised, a trace of his smile lingering upon his lips.

"Thank you, Lord Ugrach," Delphinus said. "We will uphold our part of
the bargain, to be certain."

"For that one's sake, you will," Ugrach replied, gazing at the young
unicorn. The unicorn stamped nervously, tossing her mane.


Penned by my hand on the 3rd of Mayan, in the year 428 AF.