An Ebon Challenge

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12/1995 - 1/1996 (Exact Date unknown)
Greetings, Cordir:

This One has noted with appreciation and pleasure your efforts to date. Your grasp of lyric and sense of the Thee mark you well, and your resulting works have consequently been well spoken. The only problem this One has noted is that Nevyn is not, as you stated, female...

Your gift to the Order has likewise been appreciated. The exigencies of life occasionally result in an Acolyte's untimely discorporation, the Realm being the gruesome, deadly, blood-soaked nightmare that it is. Your contribution to the Order's reserves assures that those discorporations are recovered from as fast as possible. For that, this One thanks you.

You mention a desire to enter the Order. As are many things, such is possible, but neither likely nor simple. You must show three things to be deemed worthy of such entrance:

  • The capacity to play your adventurer, not your spirit, The power to subsume your Outworld urges to the needs of the Order
  • The humility to accept a leader as shamed as this One, while yet retaining the drive to keep Ascending, achieving control of your life and Mastery over your world
  • The acceptance of death, to endure agonizing, complete loss, but recover and proceed. If you live to amass and hoard what wares you can, do not even bother to try. While wares do possess their function, the point of existence is not to gather trinkets: it is to live and thrive and gain honor in the Realm.

Show these, and you show yourself of the caliber desired by the Order, if such still appeals to thee, complete the following tasks:

  1. There is a black demon within the caves below the Deepwood, an imp whose flesh is particularly sweet. This one will very much appreciate a steak thereof. In the process, you will discover a place of some use in Ascension
  2. There are ten advanced villages on the Northern continent, yet many can neither name them nor locate them. This pathetic spectacle is not permitted within the Order. Find the ten racial cities, and be capable of returning to them. Other than that, be capable of naming them all, and know how to name their leaders.
  3. When the above two tasks have been completed and accepted, you are to accompany this One and a mortal Master of the Hand to a large creature within the Realm. There you shall die in single combat to that creature. The Master shall guard your body while you return. In showing stoic indifference to death, you will show yourself sturdy enough to control your urges and persevere through adversity.

Best of fortune on your efforts. May your destiny be what you deserve.

Thaygar - Master of the Order of the Ebon Hand