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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4512960" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 12 - Revelations and Reckonings (Part 1)“Come in,” said the wizard with an impatient wave as the cold winter wind made the candles inside the ground floor room flicker wildly. On the desk underneath the far window a parchment lifted and the wizard glanced towards it nervously.Dulvarna led the six companions into the round ground floor room which was a mess of parchments and tomes scattered around on side tables, shelves and the desk beneath the window. Valthrun hurriedly closed the door against the cold wind and ushered the adventurers inside with both hands. Erlmoor looked around for somewhere to sit but there were no chairs beyond the carved oak chair next to the desk. The candles flickered again as the door closed and then the room stabilised into shadowy darkness.“You have heard of the goblin raids that now plague the East Way since first you ventured to the Keep?” said Valthrun without preamble. He moved past and pushed through the gathered group until he could reach his seat at the desk. He sat down and turned to face them.“We have been in the Hullack Forest since Midwinter,” answered Kel. “Though we have heard rumours at the inn.”“The rumours are true, dark elf,” answered Valthrun and at this, Kel started. She had not gone without her cowl anywhere in Winterhaven and so none beyond her five companions could know her race. “But that is of little matter. The Keep grows restless, and now that I have unearthed the truth about its past it is unsurprising. Shadowfell Keep, as folks call it now, was not always known by that name. It seems that this name arose only in the past century from people’s fear of the plane through which the dead travel. Not so long ago, yet beyond the memory of most, the keep was known as Keegan’s Keep.” The wizard paused and looked around at the companions as though to ensure that all were listening.“Stories tell of how the lord of Keegan’s Keep, Sir Jerold Keegan,” he continued, “became a crazed lunatic and slew his family and friends, forever cursing the place. However, the truth of the story is much more tragic. Sir Keegan was a renowned hunter of dragons. Thus, when the great wyrm, Shadraxil, a shadow dragon of particularly ill temperament, began to plague Cormyr, it fell to Keegan to come up with a way to defeat the beast. The knight lured the beast to the keep, and there, he managed with sword and sorcery to occupy the creature long enough to perform a ritual to trap it away in a place of shadow. That would have been the end of the story were it not for the power of Shadraxil.”“We have heard of Shadraxil before,” said Kel, turning to the others. “The burial site in the vale to the south was supposed to be his.”“It was,” rumbled Erlmoor, still guarded around the dark elf but finding himself warming to her efforts to fit in with the group.“Incensed by his defeat,” Valthrun continued, casting a withering gaze at both dragonborn and drow for the interruption, “the wyrm poured all of his malice into revenge against the knight who trapped him. Such was the dragon’s power that even from beyond the Shadow Rift, he was able to deceive Keegan into believing his friends and family were conspiring against him. Eventually, the knight’s mind snapped. The author of the historical treatises speculates that he suffered paranoid delusions, for Keegan went on a rampage through the keep, killing his wife and comrades before eventually a grievous wound drove him to flee into the keep’s crypts. It’s not known what happened to him after that. Cormyr’s leaders, fearing that Shadraxil might continue to wreak havoc upon those stationed at the keep, ordered the place destroyed and its secrets hidden. They slew a juvenile shadow dragon and created a false burial site, all in an effort to conceal the truth—that Shadraxil still lives, waiting just beyond the rift for an opportunity to have vengeance upon those who did him wrong so very long ago. Whatever activity is occurring at the keep, it can surely mean ill for Winterhaven and those of nearby lands. Please, will you do what you can to help?”“We shall,” answered Dulvarna at once. “You can be assured of that. We must return to the Keep as soon as we can.”“Tomorrow would seem best,” said Lavren.“Agreed,” answered Kel.“Tomorrow it is then,” said Erlmoor with an awkward look towards Kel.“We are indebted to you for this,” Kel said then to the wizard.Valthrun acknowledged her gratitude with a nod and then looked pointedly towards the door. Not wishing to outstay their welcome, the companions filed out of the door, Kel in the lead.</blockquote>

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