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Paths of destruction
Reports are flooding into the new Direlands outpost of Ayan Baqur about the tide of portal energy that has flowed across the Direlands, depositing powerful new creatures on the landscape and opening portals to new dungeons. Heroes meeting new species of Drudge and Banderling have been at first surprised and then outright dismayed at their amazing speed and ferocity. Even more deadly, huge new skeletons -- perhaps the remains of ancient heroes -- rise towering from the plain and strike with a vitality that only the most potent spells of undeath could render. Lately, an unconfirmed rumor has it that a glittering monstrosity stalks the Obsidian Plain, a construct of sorcery so powerful that it can cleave a legion of heroes like a scythe on wheat. Undismayed, Dereth's fearless adventurers make wider and wider sorties into the wilderness to explore the new catacombs, and some have returned carrying a remarkable new kind of bow that appears to be of surpassing quality. So what has triggered these events? The Direlands have long been known as a region of unstable magic, but it appears that the wave of portal energy may be far more than a random flux. Travelers from Osteth report that the mysterious Shadow Spires, twisted floating citadels somehow connected with the Shadow invasions, have begun to drift across the land once more, and itinerant mages have learned new spell formulae at the whispering direction of an unseen force. Perhaps the entity responsible for the Shadow attack has returned -- inciting some dark new mischief even as it plays the role of a mysterious benefactor dispensing secrets and opening paths to wonderful new treasures. |
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