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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dawn Herald" data-source="post: 4018251" data-attributes="member: 58763">Another parchment toughen is tacked onto the corkboard, written in common with a scholarly penmanship. <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magepoint. This small, sleepy, idyllic village appears, at face value, to be an archetypal farming and fishing community. Well-tended fields and meadows surround the village proper, while many fishing boats bob at anchor along the village’s dock. Located east of Elmshire, it is also under the protection of the legendary archmage, Tenser. I sat across from my contact within Chauncy's roadhouse, a lean muscled man with alabaster skin and long silver hair. He dressed in adventurer's garb, one accustomed to travel and hosting a tiny arsenal of weapons. My eyes studied the crystal glaive that rested against his chair, until his cough brought me back to the subject at hand. "Tell me about the fiends." I asked. In 586 CY, Drax the Invulnerable traded the Crook of Rao back to Veluna in exchange for magic items more useful to the city of Rel Astra. In Coldeven of that year, Canon Hazen of Veluna conducted a ritual using the Crook that banished most of the demons in the Old One's armies, as well as many other fiends all over the continent, if not the world. "This is the common story heard and repeated by many grey beards." sneered my contact. "But I know many a adventurer who would argue against this claim. What people don't know is what the Church of Rao is trying to silence. That the bloody monsters are still out there" Considered heresy by the Raoan church and punishable in Veluna, the story explains about how three Raoan priests were tricked into betraying the Canon before the ritual. They accepted magical curses which transcribed the true names of 101 demons onto their skin in the forms of magical tattoos. These 303 demons were not banished. Some even say that most of the powerful demons left of their own accord to make the Flight of Fiends appear more successful than it truly was. In 587 CY, a former priest of Rao, recently converted to Saint Cuthbert's faith, discovered an evil warlord had been corrupted by a devil in disguise. He eventually founded a new religious sect, the Order of the Rosey Cross of Truth. This new order would track down other devils living among mortals in disguise. "How many did they catch?" I asked. Which he responded "plenty." In the aftermath of the Flight of Fiends, the Canon has rarely been seen due to a weakened condition and the Crook is rumored to have lost most of its power. After our interview, I recalled a old Wainford folk story about a devilish character. Tom Walker is a miser who worships money more than he does his miserly wife. This is until he takes a walk in the swamp and starts up a conversation with a devil called 'Old Scratch'. Old Scratch strikes up a deal with Tom Walker: he offers the riches hidden in the swamp by river pirates in exchange for Tom's employment under Old Scratch. Tom agrees to think about it, and returns home. Burdened with this secret, he mentions it to his greedy wife. When he is not there, Tom's wife takes all the valuables in the house and goes to make a deal with Old Scratch. When Tom goes in search of his wife, all he can find of her is her heart and liver in her apron tied to a tree. Tom Walker then agrees to the deal with Old Scratch (his wife was abusive towards him and he considered her death at the hand of Old Scratch a good thing). Tom agrees to become a loan shark. Tom constantly swindles people out of money, until he suddenly becomes fearful for the after-life. He then starts to become fiercely dedicated to St. Cuthbert, always keeping a holy book at hand. When, one day, a person who had borrowed money from him and is asking for clemency blames Tom for taking his money, Tom says, "The Devil take me if I have made but a copper!" At this time, there are three loud knocks at the door. Tom is drawn towards the black cloaked figure and realizes, in horror, that he has left his holy book at his desk. Tom Walker is then taken away by the Devil on the back of a black horse and is never seen again. </li> </ul></blockquote>

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