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Message: <blockquote data-quote="silentspace" data-source="post: 2021126" data-attributes="member: 14316">Alba listens to Manzanita with wide eyes. When she is done, she takes a moment to let it all sink in. "I understand," Alba says. "The others, Anosh and Shoduk, they weren't just exploring. They were here to free the demon, and you came to stop them."Alba looks at each of the group in turn, sighs, takes a seat, and explains.* * *There was a great demon lord who held sway in these lands, long before there were kingdoms of men. This demon was called the Lord of Rage. To appease the demon, many began to worship it, and a priesthood was formed, offering up sacrifices of their neighbors, and even their families. The land was filled with sorrow and despair.Then a powerful group led by a warrior named Redbeard appeared. They struck against the demon's priesthood. This gained them the support of the people, who hid and sheltered them, and even fought alongside them. The demon itself was too powerful to slay, but Redbeard's band developed a plan. With the priesthood destroyed and the support of the people, the adventurers moved against the Lord of Rage, striking at it in its lair, deep in the earth. In an epic battle, Redbeard's band managed to confine the demon with magic wards, trapping it.They sealed the demon as securely as they could, building a keep above it. They named this Linace Keep, after a priest of Pelor, a member of Redbeard's band, who felt it his duty to guard this spot. But when Redbeard's band left centuries ago to fight a dragon terrorizing the north, they never returned. Over the years the forest has reclaimed the land.Alba's gnomes are the descendants of followers of Linace, and they are the defenders of the keep. They've built an underground community further beneath the ruins of the keep. Lower still is a network of caves and dungeons linked to the Underdark. There are two groups of note in the deep caverns. One is a group of cultists of the Lord of Rage, keeping their dark faith in the trapped demon. The other is a horde of half-fiends, children of the Lord of Rage. Both groups seek to free the demon, though none have come close to success. The groups are enemies of each other. The cultists feel the half-fiends lack true devotion to their lord.  The half-fiends feel the cultists are fit only for being servants, slaves, and sacrifices.And now, it seems, Goruka has discovered the existence of Linace Keep and the demon, and have sent a scouting party or parties to uncover it.* * *The history that Alba relates is not known to anyone in the party. She seems completely sincere, however. Is it possible that history has been rewritten?* * *A staff like the one in Manzanita's possession appears in some images of Linace.</blockquote>

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