Darkon - Mountains of Misery

[Dread]

[Mount Nyid erupts! Thick plumes of pyroclasts spew from the bowels of this titanic volcano, its summit now replaced with a fuming caldera. Layers of ash and all manner of tephra bury the distant, sleepy town of Rookhausen that rests on Darkon's eastern coast. The Dnar River, which snakes down from Darkon's eastern flank into much of Nova Vaasa, becomes befouled by the eruption, as the reservoir rested beneath the volcano.

A noticeable haze now settles over the sky throughout the Core, with sunsets now carrying rich, scarlet hues. It becomes a noticeably colder and damper winter, with snowfall taking an bizarre yellow tint. The sun's light becomes noticeably dimmer; it manages to pierce the thick fog that seems to flood the day, yet only just. In countries big and small, mighty and fragile, people worry, showing fear and uncertainty for what lies ahead. Meanwhile, to the north in Nevuchar Springs, the zealots of the Fourth Revelation stand at the ready, preparing for the worst...]

“I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day.”

- Lord Byron, "Darkness"

[Dread]

[Refugees from Rookhausen eventually finish a long, arduous, cold journey northwards towards Nevuchar Springs. Men and women who only a month before mocked the Ezrites for their apocalyptic doomsaying can be seen now wearing frocks of green and black, utterly convinced of Bastion Teodorus Raines' truth. Mount Nyid continues to spew out soot and ash, yet word spreads of something else being awakened besides the great dormant volcano.

The Night Wyrm of Drakon is the stuff of legend, a mighty beast said to be capable of making whole fields barren with her foul breath, or of reducing an entire village to rubble overnight. She is occasionally sighted by miners and those hiking through the Mountains of Misery, and yet now they report that she is not alone; another wyrm of equally majestic and terrifying size is seen with her now, flying at her side, and with them, a host of drakes.]

“Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   
The darkness drops again; but now I know   
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

- William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"

[Dread]

[The banner of the Ezrite faith flies high as armored figures wearing green and black make their way through the Mountains of Misery, bound for Mount Nyid. Terrible, bestial roars unlike any man has heard before carry from one peak to the next, yet with Bastion Teodorus Raines leading this crusade against the Legions of the Night, the sword-arms of Ezra's faithful remain determined as they make their way towards the mountain's summit.

Another eruption shakes Mount Nyid, however, spewing more hot ash and pyroclastic material into the air, causing the gloomy and grey skies elsewhere in the Core to remain; the Ezrites who climbed the mountain descend it far fewer in number. Meanwhile, a pair of serpentine creatures circle one another high above, shrouded in part by dismal clouds. The Bastion of Nevuchar Springs, who led this expedition into the mountains, is nowhere to be seen in the days that follow.]

[Dread]

[Mount Nyid grows quiet once more; it pumps out no more of its pyroclastic flow. However, the ash and soot continues to linger in the air throughout the Land of Mists, casting the sky in a dismal grey, only occasionally accompanied by a dirty brown or a sickly yellow. There have been no reported sighting of the Night Wyrm, her mate, or what remains of her brood, suggesting they have taken up nest within the mountain itself for a long, deep slumber.

Elsewhere, news spreads of Bastion Teodorus Raines being found and brought back to Nevuchar Springs. His condition is poor, his breathing labored. In fits of feverish delirium mirroring those experienced by the first Praesidius, Yakov Dilisnya, the Bastion raves about things that could come to pass - things that might be, things that will be. More will come from the Bastion, perhaps as he becomes more lucid and breaks from his fever; for now, however, he can only but offer stanzas as though in rhyme.]

“Through the gate where four trees rest,
A city sleeps, pursuing one queen's quest.

Huntress new finds quarry old,
A great cat is slain by the brazen and bold.

Burning hatred amidst burning peak,
Prepare for war, during ashen peace.”