Help on: area catacombs

Hearken well, for we travel now to a time long past, before the rise of the great cities. It was a time of great lawlessness, of mighty lords who held sway by terror and force of arms. It was a time of chaos, of ancient gods and powerful magics, a time of endless striving.

Into this seething world a child was born unto the house of a great warlord. Arendael he was called, and in his crib he was charged with the task of conquering the known world, and a sword was placed in his infant hands. His life would be one of discipline, of tactics, of strategy and swordplay.

By the age of sixteen, Arendael was without peer. Master of a dozen weapons, skilled in the planning of great battles, and muscled like a maiden's fancy, stories of his prowess spread to the farthest holds. Thousands of warriors flocked to his banner, eager to win some smirch of glory beneath the young lord who showed such tremendous promise.

In the spring of his seventeenth year, he embarked on a vast campaign against a rival who held sway over an adjoining territory. Well did he lay his plans, and won a great victory in a titanic clash of arms at the gates of his foe's stronghold. His banner was raised over the lands of his enemy, and his legend grew.

In his eighteenth year he conquered sufficient land to double his holdings. By the end of his nineteenth, he held more than a man could ride across in a week. In his twentieth year, the few foemen who remained to oppose him yielded en masse and swore fealty to their new liege. And thus the first king was made.

Arendael was not a kindly man, but he was not given to cruelty or injustice. He was a lettered man, and understood the importance of law and order to tame the populace. From his throne all power flowed, and he established a caste of nobility, which he charged with ruling his diverse lands. His banner men were released to rejoin the peasantry as farmers and merchants, and for the first time the lands of men were at peace.

The years ground on, and a lassitude settled over the kingdom as the battles of old faded from memory. Some few rebellions had to be put down, and many young lords lead warlike expeditions into the savage lands of the North, but these had little effect on the lives of the people, and Arendael's sword soon grew dusty in the armory. Sadly, as the king's vigilance waned, evil began to take hold in the West.

Reports began to trickle in of a blight settling over the western lands. The trees grew gray and twisted, and the soil produced less and less each season. For a few years, advisors dismissed the reports as exaggerations, and deemed them not worthy of the king's valuable time. Then an outlying village was burned to the ground, with all of its inhabitants carried off or killed, and word finally reached Arendael. When he learned that earlier warnings had been concealed from him, he flew into a rage and slew several of his advisors barehanded. Seething at the attack on his kingdom, he called upon his lords to begin raising men-at-arms to form a great army, and demanded that a volunteer step forward to lead an advance party into the West, to discover the source of the problem.

Dozens answered Arendael's call, each clamoring for the honor of leading the scouting expedition. He gathered them in the great hall of his castle, and bade each one to present their claim in turn. During the second day of the selection, the doors to the hall suddenly burst asunder, scattering the guards posted within. An enormous man strode in through the wreckage, clad entirely in black plate and the furs of the savage northlands, with the midnight hilt of a longsword protruding over one shoulder, appearing almost comically small on his monstrous frame. Lord Kaladryn, veteran of a hundred campaigns against the barbarian hordes, had decided to lead the foray. None dared oppose his claim. He gathered a force of sixty picked men, and departed the next day.

For a year the king would wait for word, forging weapons and massing his army, gathering his strength for the war he was sure would come. When the first report from the West finally arrived, it did not come in the form that he expected. A messenger arrived to report that his holds were under siege by an army that stretched across the horizon, and Kaladryn rode at its head.

Arendael led his army westward, and there he met his foe in battle. The war would last for eight years, and hundreds of thousands would perish. In the early battles, word spread that no arrow could pierce Kaladryn's plate, nor could any blade dent its finish. The king's magicians constructed artifacts by the score, infusing them with spells of reckless potency, but all failed to cause harm to the great lord; some force far mightier than the powers of man safeguarded the dark champion. The morale of Arendael's forces quailed in the face of the invincible juggernaut, and the king was driven back year after year, despite his tactical genius.

Finally, in the eighth year, Arendael was forced to make a last stand at the seat of his power. His army was but a shadow of its former strength, his people were crushed and broken, and flames rose from the city around the walls of his castle. Standing on the battlements, he watched the enemy forces gather at the gates in the deepening night, almost welcoming the release of death. And then, for the first time, he saw his true opponent.

A cloaked figure stood on a raised platform just behind the vanguard, his hood thrown back to reveal a brooding face of inhuman beauty. Horror wracked the great king as he comprehended the nature of his foe, and he screamed in terror at the realization of his fate. He would find no relief in death, only servitude.

NOTES: Recommended levels: 16-20 Group Size: 3+

Seek the entrance in the swamps southwest of Oldgate.

The Catacombs are filled with countless horrors, many of which will eagerly visit death upon unprepared parties. Travel there only in strength, and be aware that conquering the zone completely will require a formidable party indeed, though the rewards shall be spectacular.

A rich history surrounds the tomb, and unraveling the story will aid you in completing the quests within.