For your Pleasure:
The Introduction when the Gargoyles are in the mood for a little Sacrifice...
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An ancient prophecy
tells of the final days, when the end of our world shall come.
Three signs shall
precede the end.
Thrice shall a
being of great evil come unto our land, and by this it shall be known
that the end is nigh.
This evil one is of another race, who consider the evil one a great
prophet.
Yet this false prophet follows not the principles of Control, Passion
and Diligence.
One day the false
prophet will come and desecrate our most holy shrine.
And the false prophet will steal our most holy artefact, the Codex
of Ultimate Wisdom.
This shall be the first sign of the end.
Then it is written,
the false prophet shall descend deep into the bowels of the earth.
And the false prophet will cause the underworld to collapse.
This will cause great earthquakes to tear our world asunder, and there
will be a time of plague and famine.
This shall be the second sign of the end.
One last time shall
the false prophet come.
This time the false prophet will come with a band of warriors.
And they will destroy all that remains of the Gargoyle race.
There is only one
way that this prophecy may be averted:
That is by the sacrifice of the false prophet.
After the completion
of the Quest of the Avatar, after the Stranger who became the Avatar
had returned to Earth, the Great Council of Britannia combined their
magical powers and raised the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom from the depths
of the Great Stygian Abyss. With the Codex came a vast upsurge of
molten rock, sealing the Abyss and creating a massive series of caverns
below the surface. Hideous monsters began to breed in this new Underworld,
creating a nearly limitless chamber of horrors nearly unimaginable
in Britannia above.
With the removal
of the Codex, the three Shards of the Gem of Mondain were no longer
contained within the neutralising aura of the Codex. The Shards allowed
three deadly spectres, the Shadowlords, to manifest physically in
the world. The Shadowlords, being the antithesis of the Principles
of the Avatar focused their attention on Britannia, and succeeded
in enticing Lord British himself into the Underworld, where his powers
were insufficient to defeat them. They bound Lord British in an ancient
magical prison, which no power he possessed was sufficient to breach.
Eventually the
Avatar, recalled from Earth, destroyed the Shards, banishing the Shadowlords
from Britannia. The Avatar then sought out the prison, taking an ancient
artefact belonging to Lord British, the Orb of the Moons, which had
the power to allow escape from the prison.
When Lord British
and the Avatar escaped from the ancient prison, the conflicting magics
of the prison and the Orb of the Moons set off a terrible series of
earthquakes, collapsing the Underworld completely. Minor disasters
affected Britannia, but they seemed a fair price for the removal of
the threat posed by the creatures of the Underworld.
The Avatar returned
to Earth for a period of about 20 Britannian years. Then the royal
seer, Nystul warned of a threat to the Avatar's life. Lord British
sent the Avatar's old companions, Dupre, Shamino, and Iolo through
a red moongate to rescue the Avatar from the Gargoyle's sacrificial
altar.
The Avatar had
returned to Britannia...
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