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DHARK DARCSUN

Character Name: Dhark Darcsun

A Dark Lord’s Tale, Or, Remember How Things Used To Be?

 

“……..””…….”” Are you speaking to me? Fogive me, people do not talk to me often, dressing as The Harrower tends to make them look away. Yes, I am the Dark Lord Dhark Darcsun, but please call me Dhark, my name can be quite redundant if said too often. Who might you be? We dont get many travelers in The Cat’s Lair tavern anymore. Not since Despise declared war. No need to worry, they rarely come down this far. Besides, whenever one strays to far from battle, they always rush right back so fast they leave a cloud of dust.

Let me get you a drink and tell me who you are. Hmmmm a bard you say? Strictly songwriter? Well I am impressed. Most bards around here use their music to start fights, or lull monsters to sleep while their beasts tear at their hides. Then songwriter, what do you need with me? Yes, bards do need stories, and I suppose I do look interesting. Well where to start. My siblings and I were born and raised right here in Britain. Orphaned, we were given a home in the old Warrior’s guild across Gung Farmer’s Bridge just west of here. Was a noisy place to live, people running in on there horses, yes that was back when all people rode were horses and maybe the occasional llama. Well, ostards were discovered shortly after but our magics were weak back then and they had neither the will or mental capacity to travel from the lost lands. Why yes there were nightmares as well. No doubt you asked that because you saw Galem outside. Black as his heart but he is a magnificent beast. No, I no longer tame animals. How you ask? Well it is true I used to speak to animals, so well that you could say we have formed a special bond. So even though i lost the ability to speak with him, that bond can never be broken. Why, I am almost certain if he died his ghost would still follow me. But now there are all sorts of wondrous beasts we have discovered one can ride, fire beetle, hmph simply amazing. But back to where we lived.

Ohhhhhh the noise. It was our job to scare away would be thieves. Behind the stairs is where we stored trapped crates waiting to be filled and shipped at the castle. The would-be thieves used to come in and practice disarming them. It was such a nuisance to reset the traps. Well, after I turned 18 I had some skill repairing the fighter’s weapons, and found a smithing job in Britain’s Blacksmith Guild shop right south of there. It was rough, I used to teach newcomers everything i knew, and a little of how it was done for less than half the gold an Ogre Lord carries nowadays. Well almost five years ago, 57 months to be exact, I grew very tired of being just another random vendor and started to make something of myself. With that strong want I suddenly felt as if someone was guiding me. For the next morning 1000 gold had been placed in my pack along with a flimsy sword, nothing more than a mere (practice weapon), but certainly a start. I was whisked away to a strange place by powerful magics, and was shown things I had never known. After this brief….. tutorial I would call it, I was placed somewhere I never knew existed, a town called Haven. Oh yes, nowadays anyone can visit this town, but back then I was told only those who had just become a little more self aware, a little more adventurous could be there. Back before the moongates were repaired you could not choose where to go. They would skip Haven and put you out in a random moongate location. Sometimes it could take 15 tries before you got to the Britain moongate or whereever it was you wanted to go. In Haven I learned the ways of the sword, the wilderness, healing, magery, etc. Soon I had learned so much I was forced out of the town, and I thought never to return. I never forgot my roots and always kept it my goal to become the best blacksmith in the land. Here let me get you another drink.

But I needed money for supplies. While hunting I was slain by an orc captain outside of town. Somehow my spirit found a wandering healer. I snapped back to life and ran back to recover whatever the orc had not stolen. I found my body but it was an empty skeleton. Two gentlemen were sitting on a log with one sying you should give him back his stuff. Oh yes friend, before the kingdom passed the law of permanent death, you could take whatever you wanted off someones body if left out too long. If you died some warriors would coat your body with monsters then rob you blind. But noone breaks that law anymore, why its almost as if you can’t loot that anymore. After that I was so dissappointed I almost returned to my vendor work and hung up my adventure belt. It was almost as if I wanted to delete myself from this world and just quit.

That is until I met the most generous woman I have ever known, and sadly her name escapes my tongue. I told her my story and she implored me not to give up. Then what she did still shocks me as I think about it. She placed in my hands a full suit of valorite platemail and an exceptioanlly made katana.Oh my friend, this is when valorite was the rarest of the rare! There were no artifacts, no reflecting damage armor, no multi-colored weapons. Just 9 ores, raw armor points, and plain steel weapons. Valorite was the strongest with the exception of a full suit of invulnerability platemail, but a suit like that was most rare indeed. But I rattle on, it would take me too long to explain things before the massive breakthroughs in armor and weaponry. Now we have found out we can target and protect against certain elements like cold and poison. Even now we have weapons that can steady your hand to make you hit more often, make you swing faster, or even throw fire or lightning at your foe. Back then the most powerful weapon you could find was a indestructible silver katana of vanquishing. But even that is still a little less than 50% weaker then what you could find nowadays, with the exception of some artifacts. Silver? Oh I guess you could call that an undead slayer, hmmm indestructible meant 120% durability was added, ha years ago blacksmithing was so poor we couldnt rate durability points, just how shabby the weapon looked and guessed how much weapon life was left. Lets see vanquishing, hmmmm I guess I could say it added about 35% more damage to what you could normally do. But even if you found something like that you might not know what you had. Every magic item found had to be identified through the use of wand or stave magic. A few years later the marks on found weapons were discovered to have meaning, and now you can tell what something is just by looking at it. I am sure if you looked around you might find some old wands of identification around on some vendors.

People love collecting useless things. Since monsters no longer needed the wands to see what their treasure they had stolen was they destroyed all their wands, rumor says they thought they could absorb the magics that drifted out. Of course it didnt work, and the result was no more wands or staves of identification were to be found anymore. And I am positive there is no need for me to tell you of this lands obsession with collecting things that cannot be found anymore. Why I remember one tale of such things. It was possible, even before I started to adventure, to remove the heart of a white wyrm. When the great frozen beatst learned that humans were taking such trophies they devised a scheme. Whenever they entered their death thros they would freeze their own internal organs. Thus whenever the hearts were removed they would shatter. The kingdom, upon learning of this, seized almost all remaining hearts as well as other unobtainable items. This included newts eyes, pumice, dragons blood, brimstone, volcanic ash, blood spawn, and pigiron. All of these were taken to a secret location in hopes of learning the ways of necromancy.

But speaking of pigiron, I have a funny story. Many months ago a piece of pigiron that was not confiscated was offered to me for a million gold. Knowing of its rarity I purchased it. Well about a year later the land of Malas, where i know reside, was discovered. The secrets of necromany, chivalry, and focus were discovered. It had appeared the kingdom had been on the wrong track as only a small number of the rare items were used in necromancy, including pigiron. As you know in Malas pigiron is more than abundant, with massive shiploads of it coming to the mainland everyday. So know I am the proud owner of a million gold piece pigiron, something you can pick up in any mage shop for 5 gold pieces. I keep that original piece of pigiron locked up in my castle. It is to remind me the market of rare items is always shaky and uncertain. Why before glassblowing was discovered a rack of vials used to be worth a fortune. Let me refill your goblet.

But even that has not quenched my desire for a wyrm’s heart. Even after I bought my first house, a wooden shack on the shore, for 50k, yes friend real estate was that inexpensive, a wyrm’s heart has stayed one of my top goals. When I had learned of these trophies I saved almost all I could from hunting earth elementals, which was what hunters almost exclusively hunted back then, and searched for a seller. Oh I was strong enough to hunt air elementals but this was before they could focus their energy and give themselves real bodies. For when elementals such as air, water, acid, fire, and such died they dropped whatever they were holding onto open ground for anyone to take. It was too risky to fight, only to have someone snag up the treasure after you killed it. See my friend it isnt just us humans who learn and grow, the evil hordes do as well. But I was saddened when I could find only two hearts across the land, and neither owner wanted to sell. I’ll never give up, but i will not lie, it gets less and less likely i’ll get my hands on such a true rarity.

Anyhow after I moved into my first house my family came as well one by one with tales of the same experiance. Each started different professions, magery, mining, thievery, fishing. Of course they learned so much more, but that was their start. Let me get you another glass as you wanted to know how I became a Dark Lord. Well soon earth elementals became too easy so I learned some magery. I used to summon blade spirits and fight Ogre Lords with a very rare repond halberd I found. Ha Ha, the magic currents in the lands have shifted, and more than once. Now the soul cannot handle more than two blade spirits at a time, but back when I used to summon you could get out as you wanted. Oh and their strangth! It was rare two Ogre Lords could kill one blade spirit. I could sometimes get 5 or 6 going at one time on old Ogre Lord Island. Soon my exploits became known and I was given the title Glorious Lord. Shortly thereafter my brother Apothecary gave me a bunch of summon deamon scrolls. I started summoning them to fight with me, but in the people’s eyes that made me notorious. Not long after my karma had been hit so low I was being referred to as a Dark Lord. But the currents of magic shifted and soon it became too heavy on the soul to ride a mount or be in the company of hired help or pets to summon a deamon. I gave up magery.

Although I hear now it is possible to ride a lesser creature and summon one, I have not tried. I’ve not visited a shrine to ask for forgiveness and redeem myself. Possibly tithe some gold to get me started, but until then a Dark Lord I’ll remain. Great triumph was mine when shortly after I moved in the small house I became recognized as a grandmaster blacksmith. For years I retained that title till the champions of evil were discovered. It was rumored long ago they had stolen our advanced knowledge of many things and stored it in scrolls. They then hid in the evil lands, and tought other monsters of such things, some they could understand, some they could not. Luckily the scrolls with tailors and blacksmiths advanced knowledge were all hidden in one place. The kingdom seized these and were given out as rewards for making armor for the kingdoms army. I, by chance, received one of these and worked hard for months. I am now known as a Legendary blacksmith. I make and fix my own armor and weapons, and fit others who need help. Here let me get you one last drink for I must leave soon. Other than that there is not much to tell, I could fill your head with tales of all my adventures but by the looks of it you might not remember them. Looks like I bought you one too many my friend.

Nowadays I keep myself busy with the invasion and recovering the Emperess of Tokuno’s artifacts. You may scoff saying people dont spend enough time fighting the invasion here, but it is all an elaborate plan. You see She gives away such powerful artifacts for returning her treasure. If we can make an ally of her I am sure her army must be equipped with such an awesome arsenal. After her crisis is over and she sees how much help we offered even though our very cities are under attack, she will have almost no choice but to send her army to help. But now I must go, I am headed there right now to return this urn I recovered. In my hands? Oh, this is a strange magic piece of origami paper I recovered off a demon fandancer. I have made several interesting shapes, what? Oh by all means, try if you think you havn’t had too much to drink. Just hold it in your hands and unfold it. As you concentrate it will fold itself into something. Ha ha ha, very humorous, I have not seen that before, a goldfish. Well It certainly was a pleasure talking to you. I hope your song fairs well, and good luck to you sleeping it off.”

THE END