Prologue

Darren takes his horse and wastes no time in setting out for Barovia. The undead blight can not be allowed to stand...

As Ujjaya traveled alone down the road to Barovia he mused on the unusual encounter earlier that day. The aasimar monk had just returned to the Lightbringer temple to report on his latest mission, when, as he stepped out, he had been approached by a young woman who had introduced herself as Helene Maurgen. Because of Ujjaya’s strange appearance approaching him could not have been easy - many found his lustrous blue skin and glowing, all-white eyes unnerving, despite the kind benevolence those eyes held and the aura of serenity that surrounded him. Helene had approached him, she had said, not knowing who else to turn to. Her husband had left three months ago, armed with silversheen and wolfsbane, to Barovia to hunt werewolves, and she hadn't heard from him since. She begged Ujjaya to find her husband and bring him back. Should the worse come to pass and it turned out he was dead, she asked Ujjaya to bring her back his wedding ring to her as a memento. Now, werewolves were not creatures the Lightbringers were sworn to fight, but they were still evil creatures, and an innocent man might still be in danger. Ujjaya had accepted Helene's plea for help then had intoned a blessing of protection and calmness of mind over her, "Oṃ saha nāv avatu.
Om shanti, shanti, shanti." Then he had shouldered his bow and set off for Barovia.

" I have a long ride to get to the new town where the lightbringers called me to. I have always had a love hate relationship with the long ride. It's always been when I have done his best thinking, but it's also when I spend the most time in my mind, with my memories. I am not originally from the Ravenloft district, but have traveled a great many miles to wind up here. Being from another part of the world entirely, maybe even another dimension. I really don't know anymore. I never traveled through a portal or anything, but I have heard stories of people crossing the great wastes and being in another world when they get to the other side. If anybody has traveled enough miles to have that be a possibility it's me.

For some reason, my mind keeps wandering to my past on these long rides. Remembering how my father was betrayed by the very men who were supposed to protect him. Remembering how my mother abandoned us afterwards. She was afraid that she would be next and that a few children would slow her down. She fled Galis for her life. All my brothers were slain, they were too old to be trained. I was put into training. I was to be one of the slingers. The slingers were the kings guard, the men that had betrayed my father. The new king had thought it was ironic to force me to train as a slinger to protect him after he had betrayed my father. He lived for irony that man.

Alas though, here i am. Obviously not a slinger in a far off land in a world that has moved on around me. I am a lightbringer, a gunslinger of my own style, travelling the world to find the unnatural and put things back to as right as they can be. And maybe, just maybe, if i slay my way through enough of these undead fiends, i can find where they actually come from. And if i can find the mastermind behind it all, maybe he will know the one who put the events into motion that took my family from me."

"Come on Chester, carry me and these goods onward. We have unnatural creatures afoot."

Roland continues to ride on, never wavering. He does not fear the undead. He does not fear their masters. He fears only failure, not being able to one day find the mysterious stranger who had cost him everything. He still isn't sure who it is, but he knows he uses the undead as his work force, and that he has his plans afoot across every part of the world roland has ever been to. And he knew that one day he would find him, and make him put things right. And if he couldn't put things right, then he would make sure he didn't do it to anyone else, ever again.

"Well, I'm no diplomat but a hunter and probably my ancestry won't play in my favour when dealing with human communities, but someone has to do the job. I could probably let my deeds talk for me in front of those knights." Kuroi thinks to himself. "It'll be better for me to find a caravan to Barovia and join them, hiding between regular people and keeping a low profile sounds like a good travel plan."

Then the avian hunter caws three times while gliding down the lightbringer's stronghold, a pair of red eyes shine between the branches of a dying tree. "Let's go Nevermore, we have a job to do..."

The midday sun glaring bright in his eyes, Weiryn pulls the cloak hood over his eyes, feeling a bit more comfortable now that he sees a few familiar faces from the guild.

"Suffer no false life, brothers."