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Posts: 1673
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Sometime in the turbulent period known as the Dark Ages…
Sir William Dark waged war on behalf of King Ferdinand. As a Black Knight, he was one of the elite paladins who undertook missions behind enemy lines. His last mission was the one that forced him to face the Death’s Hand, a group of rogue sorcerers living in a seaside cavern along the Skull Coast.
The Black Knight stood on the cliff overlooking the ocean and peered straight down to the beach below. It was high tide and the water lapped at the edges like a dog lapping up water from a bowl. The cave was directly below him and he could see two apprentice mages stationed outside the entrance. This appeared to be his only way in.
“So be it” he says to himself silently as he leaps off the cliff.
Diving straight down he pulls his great sword from its sheath and drives it straight through the top of one mage’s skull to halt his descent. The other mage fired a magical bolt of green energy at him and he rolled out of the way leaving his sword buried in the body of the first mage.
Drawing a machete from his boot, William Dark cleaved the arms off the remaining mage and then decapitated him at the neck to prevent his screaming. Pulling his great sword free and tucking the machete back in his boot the Black Knight made his way inside. Peering into the darkness he had to take one of the torches from a sconce on the wall and light it to make his way deeper into the cavern.
After what had to be several miles underground he finally came to a large opening. In the center of the room was an altar and bound to the altar was the King’s daughter Gwendolyn. She was being sacrificed for some evil ritual.
The sorcerers of the Death’s Hand stood around the altar forming a circle and chanting mysterious words from a long dead language from their lips. William had no time to consider the consequences as he had to save the princess. Howling like a wild animal he charged into the circle swinging the large great sword with an unnerving fury. He cut down three robed mages before being hit with a small magical bolt. Luckily his armor held and the magic didn’t do any permanent damage. It just knocked him off his feet.
During the commotion his grip loosened on his sword and it skittered away out of reach. Using just his armored fist he broke noses and ribs putting several more magicians out of commission. But then two overly large brutes grabbed his arms and brought him before the cult leader, Gregory Trent.
“I was wondering who the King would send to rescue his precious daughter. I should have known it would be one of the legendary Black Knights.”
“Let her go sorcerer” Sir William demanded “use me for your blasphemous ritual instead!”
“Oh if it were only so simple but it is not. The ritual of Despair specifically calls for the blood of a virgin maid, not the war tainted blood of a mongrel. But you may watch the ritual to its completion before meeting your own demise.”
Shadow Hawk’s Citadel, present day…
“It seems our ancestors are prone to violent deaths” Jess said to her brother upon pulling up several files on the supercomputer Sentinel.”
“What do you mean, like dad?”
“Yes sort of. Look here back during the 1700s a puritan by the name of Wil Dark was killed when shot with an arrow by a Native American while out hunting. And even further back before the Darks came to America there was the death of Walter Dark who was captain of the ship the Seahawk. While picking up a load of spice from Asia he was killed by ninja assassins using poison tipped darts.”
“So it’s as if someone throughout the years has sought to kill off members of our family? Is it possible someone can hold a grudge that long?”
“It would explain a lot of recent events. Dad’s death, then his killer coming back to life to hunt you down as well as what happened to Sebastian’s parents at his funeral. That bomb was meant for us.”
“But what about his death coincidence, or was that a plot to kill you?” John asks deeply concerned now for the safety of both his sister and Alicia “I mean if the one behind this will kill off those close to us just for a shot at taking us down then Alicia isn’t safe either.”
“I know and this all seems to have started sometime in around the fourteenth century with a noble knight, Sir William Dark, who was stabbed in the back while he slept shortly after he rescued a king’s daughter from a band of evil sorcerers.”
“That’s not the kind of reward one would expect” John mused sullenly “any idea who the sorcerers were?”
“The Death’s Hand cult” Jess read from the screen “seems their leader was one Gregory Trent, a sorcerer who practiced rituals designed to summon demons to our realm.”
“Both the name and the purpose seems relatively familiar to me for some reason” John says scratching his head “there was a cult trying to summon demons not too long ago but they were stopped by Captain Midnight. They called themselves the Great Ones however and not the Death’s Hand. But I can’t shake the fact that I know the name Gregory Trent from somewhere…Wait a minute Eliza Trent the necromancer. She’s the one Captain Midnight told me resurrected Marcus Deimus.”
“I’ll cross reference the name and see if I come up with any matches.”
After a couple of minutes Jessica gave an astonished gasp and began reading aloud “Eliza is the direct descendant of Gregory Trent. She is also mentioned as being a long standing member of a religious group known as Hendastahd which are direct rivals of the cult called the Great Ones.”
“Hendastahd …it can’t be that simple” John blurted out as he grabbed a piece of printer paper and a pencil and worked it out.”
Then he held of the paper for Jess to see “it’s an anagram” he said pointing at the paper which showed Hendastahd side by side with Death’s Hand.
“Okay so now we know who and why” Jessica declared with some relief “the real question now is what do we do about it?”
“We find her.”
After putting in a call to the Avenger Corps, Jess learned from Arcanum that Eliza Trent had been tracked to a small cavern on what used to be known as the Skull Coast. Captain Midnight ordered them to stand down and only conduct surveillance until they knew the extent of her abilities. So no one had yet to enter the cave and so far the sorceress had not reemerged.
Later that day on the Skull Coast…
Standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean Shadow Hawk and Talon stood peering over the edge to the beach below. The opening of the cave was just visible through the vines that had grown up the cliff face. The two Dark’s look at each other in wonder concerned that there was no visible means of defense set up at the entrance.
“Should we proceed?” Talon asked cautiously.
“I don’t think we can wait for her to come to us” he replied propelling himself over the edge of the cliff.
Talon followed behind and they both fired off grappling cables to slow their descent just before reaching the ground. They landed silently and retracted the cables. Then peering into the entrance with mask sensors activated they could discern nothing of a hidden security system.
“Careful” Shadow Hawk said “I’ll go first” with that he extended the wrist blades on his gauntlets and walked slowly inside.
Talon followed activating her own blades and turning around she began to walk backwards to keep an eye on their rear. Nothing at all attempted to assault them along the way through the moss covered corridors that seemed to run for miles. Eventually they came to a large open area where a stone altar sat in the middle where it had been unused for what must’ve been centuries.
Eliza sees their entrance and smiles “where it began so shall it end.”
“Give this petty feud up now!” Shadow Hawk demands “what happened between our families, happened ages ago. Just let it go.”
“It’s not that simple. Gregory Trent was on the verge of bringing the world under his control. The demons would have ensured his victory. Instead after that defeat the Death’s Hand was almost entirely forgotten as the Great Ones rose to become the new magical power in the world. Recently they almost achieved what my ancestor was unable to. If it hadn’t been for the intervention of the cursed Avenger Corps they would have succeeded in taking over the world! But that little incident revealed my presence to the world once more before I was ready.”
As the necromancer rambled on, almost hysterical now, Talon slipped around behind her. She waited for her brother’s signal. Eliza caught on to what they were doing and unleashed a small spell into the ground. The cave shook as skeleton remains dug their way out of the soft dirt and reassembled themselves into something that could almost be called human shaped.
“These are the slain members of the Death’s Hand that fell at the hands of your ancestor the Black Knight. And they hunger for revenge just as I do!”
“Ambush” Talon shouts as she launches a hawk-star at the nearest undead!
Shadow Hawk enters into a flurry of kicks and blade swipes rivaling the speed of the legendary Bruce Lee. This was all thanks to his martial arts training at the hands of the Shadow Master, Oroko Shadou. He gave a silent thanks to his former master while dodging an incoming bolt of magical green energy that erupted from the finger bones of an undead skeleton.
Talon, backed in a corner, launched a grappling cable from her glove. The clawed end burst through the ribcage of a skeleton dismantling the creature and grasped a low hanging stalactite on the far end of the cavern. Hitting the retract button caused the cable to pull her forth above the heads of the oncoming rush of undead to regroup on the other side of the cave.
“You should be dead by now” Eliza shouts out summoning spirits to her aide!
These ghostly forms moved freely through the air untouched by any physical thing. Then they surrounded the sorceress creating a protective shield out of their energy. Shadow Hawk launched two hawk-stars at the spirit barrier but they were instantly vaporized. He wasn’t about to risk trying to penetrate the barrier with his body.
“Looks like we’re at a stalemate” Shadow Hawk said to her “what do you propose we do now?”
“I propose you die” Eliza screamed manically launching forth a series of magical bolts that tore down her own defenses in an effort to strike Shadow Hawk down!
While John Dark ducked and dodged the blasts of energy Talon was able to move silently up behind the necromancer. Then she struck with her wrist blade and watched in horror as it buried itself into the back of the other woman’s skull. The act alone was sickening to Jessica and the smell escaping from the wound made it unbearable. She vomited right there all over herself and Eliza Trent’s corpse then fell to her knees.
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Job well done!
