Cragor, a young initiate of the Empyreal Assembly, was disturbed from
his studies in the apse of the Chrysalis Basilica by the sudden entrance
of Cenys, the Basilican scribe. The excited scribbler engaged the youth
in conversation, and within moments, dozens of priests and paladins were
shimmering into view around the Codex to hear Cenys's discovery. He
revealed an ancient parchment that told of a sacred relic employed by
the Luminai, hidden deep within a shrine in the western Vashnars.
Determined to recover it as quickly as possible, a large party led by
Silas, Qwindor, Teg, Inkarnette, and Avto set off towards the distant
mountains on the western coast.

Meanwhile, in a gloomy chamber somewhere deep within the ancient city of
Ashtan, robed Occultists flew about in a mad frenzy. Having somehow
learned of the Church's mission and fearing the powerful object would
fall into the wrong hands, Imyrr, Blujixapug, Aegea, Idempotent and
others scattered into the mountains to seek the shrine and its hidden
treasure.

Imyrr came upon it first, nestled deep within the woods of Xhaiden Dale.
Working frantically, his hands sought the secret movements that would
cause the shrine to disclose its contents. Twisting and pulling
different features of statuary, he watched as each action resulted in a
change in the configuration of the vault's complex lock. Suddenly, his
activity set off one of the shrine's traps. As the searching group of
Church warriors emerged from the treeline, a cloud of green smoke hissed
out of a statue. Everyone present fell to the ground, unconscious.

Taking advantage of the brief moment of confusion, Imyrr called upon a
blasphemous pact with the Chaos Emperor, Golgotha. The ground split open
in a yawning pit of blackness before the startled newcomers, swallowing
many of them into its depths, and thus began the battle of Xhaiden Dale.
Despite this initial disadvantage, after a fierce skirmish against Imyrr
and Blujixapug, a sylvan who commanded the nearby forests against his
foes to devastating effect, the Church seized the shrine.

The strength of the Occultists had lain untested in recent years, as the
secretive house avoided direct involvement in the long wars initiated by
the infamous chaos-loathing Archprelate, Rho. Now, spurred on by
knowledge of the power at stake, they at last took to the field. The
forest teemed with fiendish entities as rays of multi-coloured light
blazed out to ravage auras. Tarot cards flashed madly through the air,
invoking strange and powerful arcana, while dragonfire scorched the
shields of the buffeted defenders.

The Shallamese held their ground. The city's army had defended their
beleaguered city for years against relentless enemies, and the long
period of hardship had done much to shape them. Cold steel wielded by
grim-faced paladins cut through the gurgling flesh of the foul chaos
thralls, and a cluster of fiery-eyed angels wrecked terrible judgement
against the Occultists and their allies at the command of their priest
companions.

As the mighty Hand of Elysia and erstwhile sultan Silas roared orders
over the thunder of battle, two of the Church's finest scholars, Qwindor
and Zenui, set their minds to the problem of the vault's lock. Once they
had established the basics of its nature, it was a matter of deduction
and calculation to break the Luminai seal. Perhaps the greatest victory
of the battle of Xhaiden Dale was won by these two sages, whose steady
concentration and cool application of intellect addressed the riddles of
the lock even as meteors rained down around them, hundreds of swift
arrows cut through the air, and Yggdrasilan runes conjured great pillars
of fire from gaping fissures in the earth.

Amid the chaos and turmoil of battle, the final grindings of the ancient
lock went almost unnoticed, and the vault slid open. It was the
priestess Therora who reached inside the dark little chamber and closed
her fingers around the cool metal of a small blade, triumphantly
withdrawing it from the place where it had rested for nearly a thousand
years. Victorious, the Churchmen returned to the Basilica with the
athame, and the devastated Occultists retreated into the safety of the
Bastion.

Penned by My hand on the 9th of Scarlatan, in the year 470 AF.