Banefire

*"Where did you* find *this??! I think I've seen this image before --* once*. And I've still got the scars from my old mentor's "punishment" for opening that book. . . . . No! I'm not going to offer you anything for it! That's not a 'collector's item', that's the most ill-fated piece of metal I've seen in the past 400 years! Get it out of here, and take yourselves with it!!"*
-- Maegrinal Silsteri, Counsel to the Elven Ambassador, Greenstone Enclave, Greenstone, Barony of the Eastern Reaches

Just over 500 years ago, the Meadowwend River Valley in the
southeastern part of what is now the Barony of the Eastern Reaches in
the Kingdom of Tyredor was beset by unspeakable evil. So great was the
abomination that dwarves, elves, humans, orcs, goblins, and gnolls *united*
 to stamp it out. So thorough were the efforts of the leaders of this
improbable alliance that, all too quickly after their victory, the
typical racial tensions once again re-emerged, and past cooperation was
not just forgotten, it was as though it never happened.

This is just a little of what *is* still known or recorded, as
most of the direct participants are dead, or in the case of the
longer-lived races, are now possessed of shattered minds -- likely the
result of what they saw during the "Wicker Fires War".

When the followers of \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ swept out of the caverns beneath
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ (Darkmaw), villages and even cities were put to the torch.
Most of the survivors were enslaved, or worse yet, burned on wicker
pyres in offering and then *devoured*. The "Burned Host" reveled
in destruction and self-mutilation, and inflicted their joys upon most
in their path. Their early victories yielded a plentiful workforce,
well-stocked larders, and little word of their emergence into the wider
world. The high priests of \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ ordered the construction of a
chthonic temple worthy of their dread master, and thus the Shroudfire
Temple was conceived, and dedicated in a few short years upon a
foundation of blood and bone atop the bedrock of the Barrier Mountains.

The hierarchy of \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_'s cult consists of 7 high priests -- the
Shroudfire Master, the Pyrelord, the Shadowmaster, the Emissary of
Flame, the Emissary of the Deep, the Hand of Stone, and the Hand of
Pain. Below these 7 are the two orders that comprise the majority of
the ranks of the faithful -- the Order of the Darkling Flame, and the
Order of the Burning Dark. Close examination of these two orders
indicates little *actual* distinction between the two; it appears
that those who advance from the ranks of the Burned Host join one order
or the other based upon personal preference. The Burned Host is made up
 of survivors who come to accept the doctrines of \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_, and pass
through the flames as a testimony of their newfound devotion (Few of
even the vilest hearts have ever found this devotion *willingly*.). Below the Burned Host are . . . all the people not adherents of the cult -- slaves, future victims, and future meals.

The Banefire's power was broken in a battle that raged in the
Meadowwend Valley at the base of \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ (Darkmaw) and in the ethereal
 realms beyond the physical world -- just as the various races united to
 oppose this scourge, so, too, did the mightiest heralds of the many
faiths represented among those peoples. Locked away in the outermost
darkness of reality, his name excised from every inscription and book
(the title "Banefire" is only contained in three texts to date, and
those records are to be destroyed when their owners die), and every
follower purged from the earth without leniency or remorse, \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
still waits for his name to be uttered, that he may gain the power to
retake his place.

The wicker thickets that surround \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ (Darkmaw) are nearly
devoid of life; while the peoples that now occupy the valley are
blessedly ignorant, the land remembers. Even the orc tribe given the
hereditary duty to guard the path to the mountain knows few, if any,
details of what they keep.

But.

Just weeks ago, *someone* infiltrated the wicker thickets and entered the mountain, and reemerged . . . . **with something in his keeping.**