NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haraash Saan" data-source="post: 3371823" data-attributes="member: 46615">We found an inn, the Witch’s Brew, that seemed sufficient. Gastok the barkeep saw us to a large room that we could share. I was unused to ‘bunking’, as Argonne called it, with others, unless it was in a more intimate setting. However, I repressed my natural protest as we had pressing matters to discuss. As soon as we had entered the room Morgan slammed the door shut and demanded an explanation from Strav. The dark elf, to his credit, fulfilled that request.He told us the first thing that we needed to understand was that the Dominion corrupted other races and shaped them into new ones. Goblins, he said looking directly at Mortec, were perversions of Gnomes. From Mortec’s reaction I think that he was none to impressed with this slur on his race. In the same way, Stravarious continued, Dark Elves were corrupted Elves. In his youth, almost a hundred years ago, Strav and several other elves were in a forest hunting game. They were beset by the forces of the Dominion and captured. They were placed in one of the great Death Barrows created in ages past by the Gerechians. These barrows had been built to house all the criminals that had broken the Gerechians’ harsh laws. Those sentenced had their souls bound to their bodies so that they could not die. The miserable wretches were then incarcerated within the Barrows were they pondered their crimes for all eternity. The Gerechians, or Convocation as they had come to be known, were eventually overthrown by the Circle of Eight, a powerful consortium of Druids that could command the very earth to do their bidding. In the last battle some of the Great Barrows were cracked open, unleashing hordes of living dead and strange perverted creatures filled with hatred of those that lived. They were the seeds of what is now the Dominion. It was not long after the Barrows were breached by the Druids that Stravarious was captured. He spent several years inside a Death Barrow, all the while slowly being transformed. His physical appearance changed to what we saw now, but his mind had not been corrupted. Although he refused to recall with any detail his time in the barrow, undoubtedly he experienced remarkable horrors. One day the earth began to shake with tremendous power. The great ceiling of the Barrow began to crack and sections fell, crushing the helpless. As he cowered in a corner the wall against which he lay was torn open by the violent heaving of the earth and he tumbled out of the Barrow. Strav rolled quickly down a rocky inclined, collecting many a cut and bruise before eventually slamming into a boulder. He painfully picked himself up and stood in the gloomy daylight for the first time in years. His first sensation was the rain that lashed him and then the wind that whirled about him, tearing at the remnants of the clothes he still wore. Lightning cracked in the distance and the earth rumbled with echoes of the great quake. It was a day after the earthquake that Strav found himself in a forest and stopped by a pool to refresh himself and clean is battered body. It was then, for the first time, he saw what had been happening to him. Staring at the mirror like surface he was aghast. At first he thought that he was about to be recaptured by a Dark Elf, but then realised that he saw himself in the still pool’s water. With what was left of his clothing he fashioned a crude mask to hide his hideous features from the world. He travelled south for many months before finally happening on civilisation in Guerney. That was Strav’s story, as much of it as we could get in any case, and a truly remarkable one it was. There were many questions that we asked him, some of which he answered, others which he refused to dwell on. My biggest question was one that Strav could never answer satisfactorily. How much of his fantastic tale was true?We all sat in silence, pondering the amazing story that we had just heard, even Morgan had no heart to recommence his tirade. A deep and rumbling voice from a corner behind us broke the silence. “Now that is an interesting tale.”We whirled around, swords rasping from scabbards and were amazed to see that Kuruul had been replaced by a large goblin like creature. Instead of the rags normally worn by a goblin, however, he wore fine garments including a splendid red waistcoat. “Who are you?” we asked. “Who? I am Kuruul. Who else would I be?” he said.He explained that he was a Barghest, a distant relative to the gnomish peoples with the extraordinary ability to transform their shape into the dog form that we had grown so accustomed to. He too had been captured by the Dominion and his original form had been corrupted into the being that stood before us. He, like Strav, spoke very little of the events that took place inside the barrow. The only additional information that he gave us was that the Lord of the Barrow he had been in was named Rawloqu the Transmuter who was one of the great powers of the Dominion. Of his past he only boasted that he was the greatest wizard and swordsman of all of his people and that he was driven by vengeance for what Rawloqu had done to him and his family.This was indeed welcome news! A member of our company had real skills, arcane and martial at that. Sadly Kuruul quickly dispelled any thoughts that he might be of any use by claiming he was only here on the Baron’s request (they had some sort of binding relationship) and was much more concerned with his own epic thoughts. He would not even disclose these, citing “I doubt very much that any of you would come close to comprehending them so I can’t see much point in explaining them”. He spoke with Strav for a little while and then transformed back into his dog shape, curled up, hid his big black nose under his tail, and entertained himself with his own musings.This was all too much for me. After an exhausting day I had heard two fantastic stories, each with a thousand unanswered questions. Even worse, I had my hopes raised that a self professed great wizard could aid us only to have them dashed by that same wizard, who had told us he preferred life as a dog. It was all too much so dragged myself to my bunk (ye gods!) and was mercifully asleep before I could even worry about the bed bugs that were no doubt visit my person later that evening. I cannot recall my dreams of that night, but I did wake strangely refreshed. The world appeared a little different to me now.</blockquote>

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