***From Serdin Karakth\'s
Notes.***
I continue my recounting of the Troubled Times as I experienced them in my youth. Yesterday I left off with the Tale of rescuing Saradi, and tonight I shall write this account of the event that finally precipitated the Troubled Times.
It happened the week following the abduction and rescue of Saradi, and a little after the rescue of Trasok. I was relaxing with Goland in the plaza (if I recall correctly, we had both had a few ales, albeit Goland as always had got himself very drunk) when we here a deep, bellowing voice calling for someone to help finish a \"project.\" Our interest was immediately aroused (at the time I was paying for my own studies of magic by doing odd jobs here and there, and Goland, an aspiring gladiator, was similarly funding his weapons and training) and we rushed over to get the job before anyone else would. Our speed was in vain, for the Smith was looking for a group of travellers to guard, enchant, and deliver an amulet he had just made. He was an out-of-town smith, and to this day I have never seen him again. I suspect he was a travelling smith, and I suppose he was thus more suited to the task of making an Amulet than was Harnquist.
We were told our mission was a simple one: Take the amulet to be enchanted by Levrus, and then deliver it to a Klyros waiting on the Ojaveda road. It had been commissioned by a group of mages, we were told. And so, we set off to enchant the amulet.
At the Magic Shop we gave Levrus the order and the amulet, along with the money to reimburse him. He told us it was just a simple protection spell he was going to cast on the amulet. This put some of our worries to rest, but I was quickly in doubt of this whole expedition again when Levrus said something did no feel quite right with the amulet; that it felt hollow or somesuch. I begged him to research it further but he would not; in the end by pressure from my companions I reluctantly agreed to allow Levrus to proceed with the enchanting.
It went according to plan, and I volunteered to carry the amulet, since the others were wary of any taint it might carry. We had just left the shop when an icy cold wind blew at us, freezing the ground at our feet for a moment. At this point I was seriously uneasy about the whole errand we were running, and I tried to express this to my fellows. They, however, decided that we should continue on and deliver the amulet to the Klyros, deciding what to do then. Against my heart I followed them, and it was not too long before we found the Klyros we were seeking.
He was a weary one - looked as if he hadn\'t slept in days. I remember clearly his rasping voice as he said to me, \"You carry the amulet - I can sense it on you.\" That was enough for me to make me want to turn and run all the way back to Hydlaa, taking the amulet and all with me. But I did not. As I have said before, I was more foolish back then than I am now. I believed that if anything bad were to happen, we might just be able to contain it - Oh how wrong I was. Still, I had one grain of wisdom: I kept the amulet until we were well within sight of the Ojaveda main gate. We were told that bringing the amulet inside the gates could cause chaos, as the Klyros was part of some sort of Rangers of Mages group; from what I understood, freedom fighters against the Prince of Rogues.
Still, I demanded to have the guard present for the presentation of the amulet. The Klyros did go to fetch a guard, reluctantly. When the guard returned something happened - I forget now exactly what but I do remember him wilting in pain and somebody telling me he was drunk. Now, Goland and I had been drinking earlier, and I had stocked up well on certain Ivy leaves which when boiled and drunk purge the alcohol (and indeed anything else like poisons and whatnot) from the blood. I quickly administered these to the guard, but it did not help him at all - I now look back and realise he must have been under some sort of magical influence.
Regardless, I finally handed the amulet over to the Klyros, and it will be an action I curse myself for to my dying day. The Klyros immediately begin to cackle, and an evil darkness dropped around us, blocking out all senses. When it lifted, he was gone. In his stead a misty fog lay over the Ojaveda, its evil presence pressing against our minds. We rushed through the gates, in the hope of catching him, but all was in vain. We spent the entire night stumbling through the Ojaveda, chasing shadows and hunting whispers. But it was all in vain, and by morning we were forced to flee for our lives and warn the citizens of Hydlaa about the plague we had brought upon the land...
And that is the tale of how the Troubled Times began. Soon all the Enkidukai had heard of what took place in the Ojaveda. Some of them laughed, and shrugged their shoulders, saying they would face the evil if it came to Hydlaa. But many others had relatives in the Ojaveda - Relatives then trapped by the evil fog and the monsters that wandered it. The Enkidukai began to amass an army of great force, an army thirsting for vengeance. They gathered in their hundreds, and would soon march to lay siege to a city now coated with evil.
There were some brave and strong enough to defeat the monsters that guarded the city and wade through the fog - Most simply were engulfed by it and never seen again. But some others returned, with wild stories of strange icy winds and manic laughter in the mists. Yes, the Troubled Times had begun...
