Following the events of the death of Darklight, the west found relative peace as all the immortals were forced to come to terms with their own mortality. But no peace is long lasted in the world. Skies opened up and black rain fell, and began forming seemingly sentient creatures. Many let out tortured yells, and few had forms that would last more than a few hours in the beginning.
Our story will follow 3 people. First, let us start with Rezio Hawkchaser Kyraz. In his young years, before Rezio had earned his middle name, he was a simple boy in one of the smaller Kyraz towns. A hawk began to fly near him every day, and one day he chooses to follow it. It lead him to a chest filled with old Magi-tech equipment, including some Magi-tech great swords. This event lead to Rezio Hawkchaser (who will from now on be called simply Hawkchaser) being noticed by the King, who took him in at a young age to train him. Hawkchaser became a ranger in employ of the King. When the Kyraz heard of their neighbors being harassed by Black mist, the king sent Hawkchaser to the edge of the Kyraz nation to investigate. He went to a town called Knife’s edge, and found a librarian there who informed him of the basic nature of the Black Mist. He told Hawkchaser that the Black Mist were the souls of people that died unsatisfied with nowhere to call home, no afterlife to go to. The librarian speculated that this was why the Kyraz had few Black Mist incidents, most Kyraz joined the wall of memories when they die (Kyraz spikes are harvested and put into a massive wall, and it is said that those in the wall enter a dreamlike state). Blackmist began to make Coordinated attacks on Hawkchaser, but, Hawkchaser discovered something, when others “slew” blackmist, it simply put itself back together and picked up the fight again, however when Hawkchaser slew the blackmist, his Hawk would peck at the corpse and the corpse would dissipate.
Hawkchaser found out form this librarian that Elaine, a member of the eternal council, was mentioned in documents that seemed to have mention of the Blackmist attacking before. Hawkchaser went into Vanguard territory and entered through the city of Anara, where an agent of Anara found Hawkchaser and gave him some items that were left for the next “winged one”. Hawkchaser didn’t know what this was, but he pushed on to Elaine. He eventually arrived in the city of Elaine. After administering some tests, Elaine determined he was the winged one. Elaine explained Blackmist were the souls of those that had no place to go, and that they seemed to occupy the space between planes. At times, the mist would bleed into this plane, which would destabilize the plane and allow all sorts of things to enter. Whenever this happened, the plane made a man, a winged one, to repel the blackmist, by destroying the leading force of the blackmist, the Network. In times past, all winged ones were vanguards working close to the life giving Goddess Elandra, and thus the winged ones were quickly found and sent to destroy the Network before the Blackmist became a real threat. This time that wasn’t the case. Hawkchaser would have quite a battle ahead of him. Elaine revealed the Network was forming far in the east, and she gave him a compass which pointed in the direction of the Network. She also gave him a book that contained notes from winged ones past, and he discovered how to use more powers, including the ability to fly.
Hawkchaser began his lengthy travels and eventually arrived at the mountain marking the eastern edge of the Vanguard territory. And thus he began to climb. There he found a curious species of creatures about 4 ft tall. They called themselves the nameless, though Hawkchaser called them the rocklings. The nameless revealed they were experiments from the old empire, a far precursor to Daemons. They told Hawkchaser they could help him in his journey if they would defend them from an incursion by the mindless, another precursor to the Daemons. The mindless were 8 feet tall and machines of destruction. They hunted down the rocklings, claiming they were “made for me to eat”. Hawkchaser repelled the attacks and was informed by the king of the surface rocklings of a serious of tunnels that rocklings occupied. He was told where the first underground town would be, and that he could seek out a guide there. When Hawkchaser arrived there was only one rockling that would serve as his guide. He claimed there was a monster living in the tunnels that killed his family, and that this beast had many treasures, the rockling said they could split the gold and he’d guide hawkchaser to the other side, provided he slew this beast. Hawkchaser agreed, and took to calling this rockling Twichy, as he had a habit of twitching while he was talking. While the two were going through the tunnels, a beast attacked them. It had the body of a horse, with claws for arms and a scorpion tail. It had the head roughly the proportion of a man, but it spat acid. The creature claimed it was a destroyer, an ancient daemonic enemy of the Kyraz. The destroyer subdued and captured the pair, where they awaited in prison to be rescued.
After the events of Moonlight’s death, Sunlight, her sister, went a little crazy. She held a deep hatred of the Chromatics, who she blamed for her sister’s demise. To that end, she captured a Chromatic named pumpkin and turned her into a biological weapon. She gave pumpkin sorcerer powers she couldn’t control and planned to release her back into the chromatic territory to be like a bomb. When Dawntime caught wind of this, she sent her son, Quivyk, to capture and destroy pumpkin in order to maintain the uneasy peace in the west. Quivyk captured Pumpkin, but couldn’t find it in his heart to kill this innocent. He decided to hide her in his quarters, and the two spent the next few years together. They eventually had a child, a girl named Byzantium, in secret and got married; which caused which is entirely hearsay. Dawntime turned Quivyk into one of her paladins and had him continue to go on missions for her. Dawntime eventually sent Quivyk to the Black library to get a book from Midnight about the black mist. Quivyk decided it would be best not to leave his wife and child alone and brought them along. Outside, they found the barbarians that worshiped the ageless had started worshiping the black mist, claiming that their dead relatives were returning to lead their people to freedom. After a few skirmishes with the Black Mist, Quivyk and Pumpkin made it to the library. While they were there, Byzantium found a book on half breeds, she was the only entry within it, the book had several details about her, and included a method of storing half breeds in extradimensional space. The group found Midnight and she gave Quivyk the book he needed, and he returned to Dawntime. Dawntime told Quivyk to return to his chambers while she read the book. When Quivyk and Pumpkin went back to their chambers, they found some agents of Sunlight there to reclaim Pumpkin. They dispatched the agents with haste, killing them so no one would find out what Quivyk had done.
Quivyk was called to meet with Dawtime again, and she told him that the blackmist was somehow related to the goddess elandra, so he’d have to go to vanguard territory to seek out Elaine. Dawntime told Quivyk to bring everything at his disposal, hinting that she knew about Pumpkin. Quivyk returned to his chambers and brought Pumpkin and Byzantium with him to the north, but not before gathering the necessary materials for the spell listed in the book from the library. The two made their way to vanguard territory, through the lands of the Chromatics. There, they found out that Pumpkins magics grew increasingly unstable in the presence of Chromatics when she attempted to kill her own countrymen that were trying to take them prisoner. Quivyk managed to save the injured Chromatics, and was brought to see the local leader. The leader told Quivyk that some children of the ageless were destroying their crops, and they would appreciate some help dealing with this. Quivyk and Pumpkin swiftly dealt with this threat. Then Quivyk began to have doubts about keeping Byzantium with him and Pumpkin, and he convinced her to leave their child with the Chromatics. The pair, kept moving through the Chromatic territory, only stopping in the city of blue so Quivyk could talk to Crimson and inform this leader that Byzantium had been left in his country, and that there might be people who would do terrible things to her if they ever found her. Crimson assured Quivyk he would take every measure to defend Byzantium.
The pair finally got out of Chromatic territory into vanguard territory and were greeted by an all too familiar sight, mist men. But this time something new happened, the mist men surrendered instead of dying, informing Quivyk and Pumpkin that they solely wish to exist, and that the Network would be interested in talking to the pair. Quivyk allowed the mist men to return to the network to inform him that Quivyk and Pumpkin were willing to listen to reason. But this trust was soon regretted. Quivyk and Pumpkin eventually got to Elaine, and she informed them that the mist men weakened the fabric of this plane, allowing others to slip in more easily. She also informed the pair that a hero named Hawkchaser had went ahead to deal with the network, and if they hurried they could reach him before the confrontation took place. Elaine gave them a map which she had linked to Hawkchaser, and so the pair went to chase Hawkchaser. The pair made it to the mountains east of vanguard territory and were greeted by the nameless, who once again needed help against the invading mindless. The pair helped and they went to the king who sent them to the tunnels, where they eventually found the base of the destroyers and freed Hawkchaser, who had been in prison for about the month. The party found the leader of the destroyers and killed him. Hawkchaser revealed to the leader that the Kyraz had imprisoned Cradrum and that this world was no longer safe for Daemons.
The party got to the exit of the tunnels and were met with sunlight, green grass, black mist, and an odd species they had never seen before. The species referred to themselves as Segandis and claimed that the black mist had resurrected their ancient spiritual leader in the form of the network, and they would thus follow the black mist, but they offered a parlay to the winged one and party, who accepted. The party met with the network, who informed them that he wishes only to let the black mist come into this plane, he has no plans to invade. The black mist exists between planes, which is a fate worse than hell according to the network. The party informed the network they couldn’t let him stay in this plane, and that they were at an impasse. The Network retreated and the black mist and Segandis attempted and failed to destroy the party.
The party finds out from a hostage Segandis that the Network has a flying fortress, and he is planning to use some artifact to stabilize the blackmist in this plan and anchor it to the plane to keep it existence in it permanent. The party finds the flying fortress and fights hordes of black mist and segandis, but unfortunately in a fight with some segandis clerics twitchy is hit by one of Pumpkins spells and he perishes. The party confronts the Network, which has morphed into a monster at this point using a small red gem it calls a world tree. It fights the party, but pumpkin manages to freeze him long enough to let Hawkchaser and Quivyk shatter him to bits. At this point, the party is left seeing a huge rift in this dimension that allows the blackmist to enter, but Dawntime and moonlight use magic to instruct Pumpkin on how to use the world tree and her own magic to close the rift, and to make a plane for the blackmist to occupy. From that day forward, it’s said that all souls with no place to go find their way to the plane that Pumpkin made. Quivyk, Hawkchaser, and Pumpkin make there way back to the west and tell Elaine of the deeds they have done. Hawkchaser asks Elaine to resurrect Twitchy, and she complies. Hawkchaser then informs the king he wishes to move to the mountains to help the rocklings, and Quivyk asks Dawntime for the same. Both accept, but both expect a call to arms to be headed show one be made, and both Quivyk and Hawkchaser comply. Hawkchaser led the party to the mountains, where they would keep watch over the rocklings and help them build a true civilization. It is said these three heroes also keep watch over the events in the west and are always willing to help fight to keep the balance of the world.