@Device(PostScript) @Make(Report) @Style(Spacing 1.5, Leftmargin 0.75 inch, Rightmargin 0.75 inch, SingleSided, Font = TimesRoman, Size 10) @comment(Set these values appropriately for each character profile) @string(name="Hawk Brightwind ") @string(realname="Hawk Sundance Brightwind ") @string(playername="Player Name") @string(id = "897786") @include (/mit/abstract/Characters/Sheets/cover.mss) @Majorheading(@value(realname)) Hmmm. It appears that all is not what it appears to be here on this "Castle in the Sky," the last of the Cloud Castles. The Western mage, Kalerege, is trying to make it seem like it is only his generosity and concern that prompts his opening his Castle to humans and Westerners alike, but you know better now. Whatever it is that's going on on this Castle, most of it is still a secret. Of course, you really aren't one to complain about mages keeping their secrets. After all, your biggest secret is that you @i(are) a mage, and if that were ever to become known you would be in deep trouble. Your fellow Clansmen have been a bit touchy about magic ever since the Clearstone Uprising, and the practice of the "forbidden arts" is one of the few Clan-wide crimes. The fact that you are a black magician, tapping the realm of Chthon for your power, is not likely to make your peers any more receptive to you. And the fact that you are really a descendant of the Clearstones will undoubtedly serve to drive the final nail into your coffin, even though you had very little say in the matter when the Clans decided to scatter Clan Clearstone all over the land four centuries ago. Many of @i(them) undoubtedly have Clearstone blood running through their veins -- the only difference is that you know it. Nevertheless, it'll probably get you killed if anyone finds out what you really are. But they won't find out. You've been a practicing mage for years now, and nobody has ever suspected -- you've even managed, ironically enough, to gain a position on the Iron Gauntlet, the Clans' elite fighting force, ostensibly to hunt down witches and other heretics who practice the art. While you have had to chop down a few fellow practitioners over the years, you've made sure that they were all either of Tualohic alignment or rivals of yours. In so doing you've brought across two camels with one water bottle, simultaneously securing your position within the Gauntlet and removing potential threats before they mature. Actually, one might even say it was @i(three) camels with one water bottle -- you've also managed to be a thorn in your cousin Dirk's side for most of this time. Not that he's a bad sort, in fact you're rather fond of him in a way, but even when you were both children he harrassed you about your love of books, of studying, of learning. He prefered more physical activities, both in the practice fields and, later, in the cantinas -- it came as no surprise to anyone that he became a warrior by trade. What he never realized was that in your studies you were obtaining more power than Dirk, with his swords and his muscles, could ever dream of. And when, on your 16th birthday, you entered the military, Dirk was most shocked of all. You still remember quite clearly the look on his face the day you challenged him to a sparring match. He was so condescending, so quick to assure you that he wouldn't hurt you, so utterly flabbergasted when you thrashed him soundly within the sparring ring ... it still makes you laugh. At first, you thought he would sulk forever, but instead he started to see you with a new kind of respect. You've gotten along fairly well ever since, although sometimes he has to be reminded of which one of you is boss. Which actually brings up yet another question. Either purposefully or not, the Westerners have managed to trap you and Dirk as the only members of the Gauntlet sent here by the Clans (well, there's also Stratus, but you'll worry about @i(him) later). You are outnumbered by the Westerners, and you know (although you haven't informed Dirk of this) that this Castle is undoubtedly functioning as a confluence of magical forces and practicioners. Dirk is your superior officer, and you are going to have to follow his orders, but it shouldn't be too difficult to push things around so that he devotes his attentions primarily to the Left Hand, if he chooses to track down the practicers of the art here at all. The Hand is a puzzle. They've existed for years as a secret coven of witches; nobody knows where they are or what it is exactly they do, or even which Lord they serve -- all that is known of them is their name and their power, which is considerable. With this kind of a reputation, it is unfathomable that the Hand would offer their services to the Clansman's Clasp in exchange for immunity from prosecution, but that is exactly what they've done. They've played a major role in the war, but if this so-called Peace Summit actually succeeds in ending the war, it remains to be seen what will occur. If witchcraft is legalized, can the legalization of other forbidden arts be far behind? But if only the Hand is legalized, they will become far more of a threat. What if they choose to bend their divination skills to the discovery of practicing mages within the Clanlands? Clearly, you need to find out more about the Hand's intentions and inclinations. Undoubtedly, they have a force on the Castle. If you could find them and gain their trust, they could be extremely useful allies. On the other hand, you could just join forces with your cousin and try to wipe them out. In either case, though, you need to find them. Rosemary Sweetwater is probably a good person to talk to first; the word in Clearstone Castle is that she was one of the Hand's strongest supporters in the Clasp. The more you think about it, the more it seems that the Hand is likely to prove more of a threat than a source of power, unless you can handle them @i(very) well and keep it all secret from Dirk. You'll have enough trouble on that front, though, keeping him in the dark -- so to speak -- about your work with the Darkholders. For that matter, you might have trouble enough with the Darkholders. You still aren't quite sure what to make of them, and it's been over a decade since you discovered their existence. It all started when, researching an old tome of Chthonic lore, you uncovered an unusual scroll, written entirely in Chthonic runes. It took you a while to puzzle out the writings, but when you finally did you knew that this was @b(it), the break every mage searches for. What you had discovered in that musty old tome was a page of the @i(chaosgarral), the Book of Chaos, the Tome of Chthon, the Darkhold! This was an artifact of Chthon that was only whispered of in legends, that had been destroyed ages ago, and you held a page of it. The possibilities were endless. You mastered at last the magic of the page, and learned the secret of Black Armor. It took hunting down a werewolf and skinning it to complete the construction of that powerful protective device, but once you were done, the armor you had fashioned of that pelt rendered you invulnerable to all mortal weapons but those forged of purest silver, immune to most poisons, resistant to magics of all kinds -- in essence, nearly invulnerable. The legends said that each page of the Darkhold was linked to another, so that the holder of one page could find the rest. You never succeeded in that; though there @i(was) a rather cryptic puzzle on the page that seemed like it might point the way, you were never able to solve it. In any event, using the power of the Darkhold you established yourself as a powerful mage, a Clearstone worthy of the name -- though of course, it had to be done in secret and with stealth. It was while you were engaged in building up that rep that you became suddenly aware of a force, a @i(presence) of some kind within your scroll, intent on communication. Mastering your natural nervousness, you opened your mind to the scroll, only to discover another mind, as shocked and surprised as your own! This happened some ten years ago, shortly after the founder of the Gauntlet, Storm Bluemist, returned to the Clanlands from his exile and slew the Greystone. At the time, Dirk was all set to go off to war against the Westerners for sending their devils to attack human beings, but you found yourself with more important tasks. The mind you contacted was that of another dark mage, living in the Clans, who possessed another page of the @i(chaosgarral). He told you of the Church of Chthon, slowly building itself up from the ashes of the "Holy Wars" -- a reference you didn't get, but the idea was clear. He told you, also, of the inner circle of that Church, formed of those whom the Dark God had blessed with his artifacts of power. The circle was known as the Darkholders, and you were invited to join. You did so. Since then, you've been keeping a fairly low profile with the Darkholders, although you have been rather successfully grooming some of the more promising young mages you've hunted down towards affiliation with the Church. You've never met any of your fellow Darkholders, and in fact have only communicated with one of them -- for some reason, none of the others seem able to contact you, although you've been perfectly capable of contacting them. This probably means that the Darkholders are Westerners, and that the Shrine of Mishael is "protecting" you from their messages, as it defends all humans from Western magic. In any case, though, you've been mostly on your own, which has been for the best. You are by no means a fanatic priest, but you @i(do) know the power of Chthon, and you know the power that comes of having followers, and the mages you've blackmailed into the Church have enhanced the power of your god, and thereby your own power. It seemed that you were well on your way to the top, with a growing group of fervent followers backing you up. In fact, that's still the case, but things are getting rapidly out of control, and you don't know why. A week ago, you were contacted and informed of a meeting of the Darkholders on Kalerege's Cloud Castle, where the Peace Summit was being held. You were wary, uncertain, and finally decided not to go. You weren't given much of a choice. You felt a summons you could not resist, compelling you to make arrangements to arrive on the Castle. For you it was easy, being highly placed in the Gauntlet, but that didn't make you any happier. When you arrived, a number of things happened -- for one, you received a message through the Darkhold from the Darkholder Prime, the High Priest of Chthon himself, explaining what the meeting on the Castle was all about. For another, you discovered that some of the writing on your page of the Darkhold had altered -- it was still a cryptic puzzle, but a different one. This made sense; the High Priest had said that all the pages of the Darkhold had been collected on the Castle. The next step is to find and collect them yourselves. Other strange things have been happening as well, however. Shortly after you arrived, the teleport platforms that brought you all up to the castle broke down. In fact, for a while magic all over the castle seemed out of control, and you were worried that the cursed thing would fall to the ground, but things have stabilized some since then. Many of Kalerege's guests, yourself included, have spent much of the last two days rounding up beasts that escaped from the menagerie when the locks stopped working. In fact, it was while trying to subdue a violent hippogriff that you discovered perhaps the worst event of recent history: your Black Armor had somehow been drained of much of its power. This discovery nearly killed you. The man you'd been working with, a Sweetwater naval type named Cord, slammed into you accidentally while avoiding the 'griff's claws, and you @i(felt) it! Thank Chthon it was Cord and not the 'griff itself who showed you your vulnerability, but you realized you were going to have to resort to magic to defeat the thing. Luckilly, Cord remained stunned by the impact long enough for you to conjure a magical blast to subdue the beast -- in fact, he seemed so dizzy and reeling, you doubt it ever occured to him to wonder how you defeated the beast. You escaped with your life and your cover intact, but you had lost the Black Armor. Some experimentaion later revealed that it hadn't quite been destroyed. It still provides resistance to toxins and even to magic, but it no longer protects you from physical harm. In your profession, that can easily result in your death. You need to fix it, or replace it, soon -- perhaps the wizard Kalerege keeps werewolves in his menagerie, but you have yet to see one. The issue becomes one of greater concern, now that you and Dirk are the only Gauntlet members officially sent to the Castle. Interestingly enough, however, you aren't the only ones actually @i(here); Stratus Bluemist, a prisoner of war in the West the last you heard, is on the Castle. Although he isn't officially sent over, the Gauntlet needs as many swords as it can gather right now. You and Stratus have been just barely missing each other, it seems, since the beasts escaped -- you should track him down soon and let him in on recent Gauntlet activities, as well as find out what it is he's @i(doing) here. More confusing than Stratus' reappearance is the arrival of a Westerner, Dervish by name, who lists his occupation as Sworddancer. You aren't certain whether this is his idea of a sick joke or an intentional insult, but he should know that only humans can be sworddancers. Only the Gauntlet has that right, and that honor. On the other hand, he's also a pretty good fighter -- he thrashed Dirk when your cousin challenged him to a duel of honor. You couldn't stand against him for a minute without the Armor. Actually, the Westerner's impudence serves well to remind you to regain perspective. Despite the fact that you are a Darkholder, you should never forget that you are a human being. It is the Lord Chthon whose power invigorates you, and followers of the Dark God may be your allies in enhancing the God's power on this plane, but they are exceptions. Despite the Clasp's overtures of peace, for the moment the Westerners are still the enemy, and it is your pledge to protect the humans here and everywhere from that enemy. It is a pledge you take very seriously. For the moment, however, it does not appear to be a pressing problem. It is unfortunate that none of your Church could be brought to the Castle without arousing suspicion, but there are those you can work with. You were shocked, actually, when you arrived on the Castle to discover Marshall Oasis, your Clan head. He had announced prior to your departure that he was not attending the Peace Summit due to illness, and had given Dirk instructions to represent him. You were even more surprised by the warm glow of darkness you felt when you approached him, and when a surreptitious spell allowed you to see his black and powerful aura, you concluded that he was the human you had been in contact with. Perhaps a bit too eager, you took him aside to tell him how pleased you were to see an ally you already knew. He seemed startled, a bit confused for a moment, and responded with some meaningless pleasantry. Odd. Perhaps he simply didn't recognize you, or perhaps he @i(isn't) your fellow Darkholder after all. In any case, though, his aura glows with the forces of Chthon; perhaps he, like so many others, may be made an ally if he is not already one. With or without allies, however, this is certain to be a busy week. You have magical armor to reforge, a witch coven to hunt down, and an entire delegation of humans to protect. Even for you, this will prove difficult. Good luck! @newpage @heading (Items, Abilities, and Spells) You begin the game with the following items: @begin (itemize) A page of the Darkhold The Black Armor Your sword and dagger A small crystal lens A whetstone A vial of blade sharpening oil @end (itemize) You have the following special abilities: @begin (itemize) Poison Resistance Magic Resistance Sworddancer Chthonic priest, level 1 @end(itemize) You know the following spells: @begin(itemize) Enchant Armor Gust of Wind See Aura @end(itemize)