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Message: <blockquote data-quote="paulewaug" data-source="post: 253128" data-attributes="member: 5899">The Palace of the Silver PrincessPhillippe awoke gasping for air.  His bed sheets were soaked in sweat.He fumbled in the darkness of his room for a moment until he found his flint and steel and was able to get a small candle lit.He then staggered over to the lone window of his attic home.Phillippe lived in an attic in the abby located by the Lake of the Night.  The lake was so called because on a clear night, such as this had started out, it clearly reflected the stars. But now dark clouds brooded in the sky. The abby has stood for years at the far end of the Valley of Haven and been a place of solace for warriors who needed a break from the troubles of the world.  A place for learning for those with the mind for it.  Filled with books and scrolls and scholars.  And more books were brought from time to time from other lands. This place was Phillippe's home.  He was found on the steps at the main doors on the morning of the winter solstice.  From all appearances it looked as if he had spent much of the night there. In a blanket of wool and snow.  The brothers quickly brought him in, concerned for his health.  He was awefully quiet.  They soon learned they had no need to worry for his heatlh as he appeared to be prefectly fine.  In fact he seemed to be a perfect human male child.  As he grew he was never sick a day in his life, seemingly protected by some divine grace.  He was a well behaved child and grew into a very fit, polite, and well spoken young man.  He listened attentively to the headmasters and showed no small degree of skill in his sparring sessions with the guards and the visiting warriors who frequented the abby. He especially enjoyed reading books about knights and heroes of valour that would go out and right wrongs and put a stop to the evils that would rise throughout the lands.The brothers always new the day would come when their beloved son would leave and discover just what kind of evils were to be found out in the world.  The long awaited time, after 20 years, had arrived.Phillippe stood in the window looking east,  the sun wouldn't rise for many hours yet.  But strangley, to the South, he could just make out a faint red glow.  Because of his dream he knew why this was.  A presence had come to him while he was sleeping.  It had imparted to him in a vision what had occured.  The discovery of the ruby, the journey of the Dwarves.  The plan to have a celebration and the arrival of the strange, dark cloathed, pale man.  A dark pale man riding a white dragon no less.  A White dragon!Of all of the books Phillippe had ever read they indicated that white dragons were of evil temperment, savage beasts.  How could he be allowed to land at the palace and see the princess?He could sense others in his dream as well.  Five others.  He could not make out their features but he new they were there.They seemed strangley familiar to him.  One of them felt particularly familiar.  He realised why...It was Rowena. One of his friends here at the abby, closer to a sister really.  She was younger than he and had been sent to the abby by her parents, farmers who had several children and could scarcely afford to take care of them all. Rowena had showed a keen mind and taken well to learning to read. So the sisters at the abby had taken her in and trained her to be a priestess of Pelor, god of the sun.  Just as Phillippe had taken to following Heironeous, god of valor.The presence in the dream had urged them to go to the Palace of the Silver Princess.  It showed them an explosion and parts of the Palace tumbling down.  When the dust settled a ruby glow surrounded the entire palace.  Chaos had come to Haven, Orcs and Goblinoids crept in to terrorize the valley and it would only get worse.  The disaster happened so quickly that the people were helpless and confused.  Their leaders trapped, possibley dead in the palace.  Something had to be done quickly.Phillppe gathered up his meager belongings, some weapons and armor given to him by the guards and visitors.  A wooden holy symbol given to him by the brotherhood, indicative that his clerical training was not yet completed.  He stopped by a storeroom and stuffed a backpack with some food and other equipment he though he might need.  As he prepared to leave he discovered Rowena in the courtyard also getting ready to go.  Several of the brothers and sisters of the abby had gathered around and loaded a small cart with equipment and hitched it to a mule.They all new it was time for them to leave, the both of them.  They could only hope they had trained them well enough for the trials to come.Several hours before sunrise they bid good fortune and the blessings of the gods to these two whom they had grown so fond of.   They set out, bound for the southern end of the valley. Where the Palace waited.  Glowing reddly.  Red like blood.</blockquote>

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