Atlantic Roleplay Community Boards

[Haydn ab'Arawn]

---

The next day, Maelwyn ab'Arawn sent messages to all available druids. She called them to her, to discuss the previous night's disturbance. She looked around the group, at Steel, Tavish, Roland, Jarik, and Malikhia.

"My friends.. " She began, proceeding to tell them all that she had experienced last night. She told of the pain she had felt, the ominous feeling she now held. After telling of this, they agreed to accompany her to the place where the pain seemed to be coming from. Indeed, a few of the other druids felt it too, even if it wasn't as strong yet.

"I have scryed out where the land is suffering, tis an area known to many as Dark Cove. A terrible thing must have happened there for the world to cry out so. The very land is in pain. We go there to determine what happened, to try to make sense of this."

Thus, they proceeded to set out to Dark Cove.

Once arriving, the first thing that they noticed was that the grass itself was black. The trees could have passed for winter bareness, had they not, also, been black. Animal carcasses lay strewn everywhere, birds having fallen from trees, also from midflight.

Maelwyn looked down at a squirrel, lying, curled around one of it's kits, as if to protect the baby squirrel from whatever foulness had crept upon them. The squirrel could not protect it from this, however. Maelwyn thought of Sorrel, glad he was with Lady Molly, and not a victim of this horror.

There were also human corpses lying on the ground, looks of terror upon their faces. Whatever evil had claimed their lives had not done so peacefully. These people had suffered. The evil of it all began to sadden Maelwyn even more.

So, this was why the very earth shuddered, she thought. So much death, so much killing and loss of life. It tore at her heart, her very soul ached at this reality. Truly, what reason could there be for this? What force would or could do something like this, and why? Only Lord Oaks and the force that caused this would know.

As they walked, they began to feel a slight chill creeping upon them, a frozen wind, drifting over them. A strange house stood out, taller than the others, and as it was open, they entered it to investigate. Bodies and bodyparts lay strewn all over. It seemed as if a dark person had been performing rituals in this place. Eventually, they reached the third floor. A most odd place, formed as a maze.. The druids decided to evacuate the house quickly and prepare to leave. There was just too ominous a feeling settling over them.

Outside the house, they gathered together to discuss the findings. That's when Maelwyn discovered that Steel had been touched by something, on the fourth floor. Frowning at this, and having a terrible feeling about it, she started to tell him he needed to have it blessed and cleansed
by Lord Oaks, when they all began to hear things.

Strange, low keenings, carried on the wind. Moans that began to get louder, as if whatever it was that uttered them was growing closer. They all hurried to the north, unknowingly following the same path that Mairsil and Ceinwyn had trod the day before, whilst escaping the fog. They veered to the east slightly, though, and towards the cemetary, not quite to it, yet.

A gate was opened to the shrine of spirituality, and all proceeded to enter it. Yet, Steel's horse whinnied and bucked and shied away from the gate. He had to forcefully pull it into the gate. Once there, it seemed to calm a little. Upon examination, Steel noticed a mark on it that hadn't been there before.

Maelwyn took Steel through a purification ritual, that included him becoming an earth warden. A secret ritual, only allowed to those the land sought to represent it, in times of need. A ritual that granted the powers of the earth to the chosen one. The powers of nature.

She scryed again, the land of Dark Cove, and saw them. Shadow wraiths, for lack of a better description. And she saw how the only thing they craved is death, they felt peace in killing. Standing, she made known to the others what she saw in the water.

"My friends, from this day forth, I hereby rename the land of Dark Cove. Whether anyone else wishes to call it by my new name for it, is up to them. I shall forevermore call that cursed land Black Cove. "