Seeker Eternal

It is Begun...

In the waning moments of twilight, two riders upon winged mounts land upon a steep overgrown hillock. Fallen columns and remnants of ancient walls litter the forlorn landscape, as twisted trees seem to reach out for them. Seeing the lone free-standing arch ahead of them, they dismount to close and investigate. The first, a young Human female in fine leathers, with a tiny blue winged monkey, climbs down from her wyvern. The second, a tall muscular figure in full armor and hefting a massive greataxe, climbs down from a menacing-looking black winged nightmare.

Agitated by the sudden arrival of the intruders, a large dark blue, armored, serpentine monstrosity raises it reptilian head and rushes out of it resting spot with the ring of an old ruined tower. It rears up between the two intruders and the archway with the crackle and static glow of electricity snaking over its form.

"Blue, I have feeling this is going to hurt. Better pop out of sight for now." Kris tells her little winged monkey. She swallows hard and bursts across the field of the ruin to engage the lightning worm. Her demon-bound scimitar howls as it moves through the air, guided by the young woman's expert hand. Once. Twice, before she spins off and disengages the large serpentine creature.

An angered roar emerges from the armored warrior's helm. he hefts up the greataxe and cleaves away at his attacker, ripping two large gashes in the monster's chest.

Rolling with the shock of the behir's breath, Kris spins on her heels and races to attack as it mauls Killian. She slashes twice into the behir's flank with her demonic scimitar.

The demon scimitar carves through the ancient guardian's scaly hide. Kris swings her gore-splattered blade for a follow up attack and ...

---

Two nights ago...

There was a peaceful serenity in an attractive youthful, feminine, face wreathed in slightly curled black locks. Human, her kind is. Vistani her ethnicity. Pleasant blue grey eyes, snapped open of a sudden—breaking the calm in the place Kris had chosen this fateful night to rest her head.

Was it a sound that had awakened her or simply a feeling that something was off in the stillness of this night?

Then it came—a whisper unlike another she had ever heard. Calling her name...

"Kris Amani. You are chosen above all of your realm. The multiverse needs Champions once more."

The awakened sleeper rises to a sitting position and peers into the shadowy vacancy of her surroundings, but sees nothing amiss—nothing out of place.

"Seek out the legendary Shrine of the Dead God, Kwll. Defeat the guardian. Reveal the gate."

The young Vistani listens, as the disembodied powerful whisper speaks yet again. She rolls out of her resting place, takes up the half spent candle in its holder at the side of her bed, and takes a few cautious steps in the direction of the voice.

"Find the key. Unlock the Dark Eye of Oblivion. Enter the City on the Edge of Forever. Destiny awaits the Champions Eternal..."

Something catches the alert Vistani's eye in her periphery. She turns to see a mirror hanging before her a short distance away and brings the illumination of the candle up to better see the reflection within. What she sees there catches her off-guard and causes her to drop the holder, with its lit candle. The face looking back at her from the flat surface is not her own, but that of a boyishly handsome pale, male Aasimar.

As the candle hits the floor, Kris is startled awake. She turns and notices the candle and its holder are no longer at the side of her resting place, but on the floor. The smoke from its extinguished wick twirls upward, like a fleeting spectre, into the air...

---

A blur of blue fur hopped from the lower half of the bed, even before Kris could pull back the covers and move to investigate the fallen candle and its holder. "Blue? What is it, boy?" The tiny blue-furred Capuchin looked up innocently with candle and holder in its little hands and jumped back onto the bed beside the teen.

She grinned and accepted the presents from her little buddy and rubbed the top of the monkey's head while she placed the candle back from where it had fallen. "Very curious, huh Blue? Strange visions in the middle of the night and surely this was intended for Killian, not me." The slight accent of her people inflected her words, but only slight, as she had been immersed in a world not her own and surrounded by gorger from an early age.

Kris adjusts the one strap of her short black satin chemise and places her bare feet on the rug, before standing and stretching. She was and attractive girl by most standards and had filled out over the last few years, even though she didn't often announce it with her clothing choices. The young woman of Vistani heritage was still trying to deal with her physical changes and decide whether she was more comfortable dressing down her matured body or accentuating the new curves she had developed. Adulting was so confusing sometimes.

Finding her balance, she reached over her exposed left shoulder and scratched at the sorcerer's brand given to her upon completion of her Trials of Becoming. It depicted an open eye with an X at the center of the pupil. "Many questions I have. Like, who was the boy in the mirror? Should I know him? Was he the one who sent me the message? That voice certainly didn't fit the image, huh Blue?"

Kris wandered over to the old antique mirror on the Black Horse Inn's wall and reached out cautiously to touch the smooth pane of silvered glass within. Her own expressive bluish grey eyes looked back at her from it and she crinkled her nose, in that funny little way she had, at the thoughts running through her head.

While Kris stands at the mirror, there is a knock at her room's door.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

After a pause, Killian's deep voice can be heard through the door. "Lady Amani? Is all well with you? I have had a strange visitation..."

Out in the small hall connecting the two well-appointed guests rooms, stands a towering muscular male with ash gray skin and blazing motes for eyes. He rubs a hand over his bald pate and leans against the wall next to the door. He is wearing only a pair of black loose-fitting pants drawn together at the waist with a corded string.

"There was a stranger in the mirror—a vampire by the look of him or a devil." Killian relays through the closed door. "We must be away with the coming of dawn. I have been summoned..."

---

Morning is heralded by the rooster's crow, as Kris and Killian gather their belongings and set out on their new quest...

Kris feeds her pet wyvern, Vulnerhaak, prior to affixing the riding harness to her. It hasn't been lost on the young bladesinger, after the brief conversation with Killian following the dream they both had, that she had indeed been called to become possibly a champion. Kris had never really aspired to be such. She was content to travel as the Goliath Oathbreaker's companion and oft voice of reason. Whoever had summoned them must either be desperate for heroes or they know more of her potential than she ever has.

With Kris aboard her wyvern, Vulnerhaak, and Killian astride his black winged nightmare, Fury, with his companion Shar holding on behind him, the Goliath Oathbreaker and his companion took flight over the Black Forest of Gilcantiel and then across the Sea of Solvyne.

After finding a remote clearing to rest overnight, they once again set out. They noticed immediately the distant southern horizon to their far right was a wall of dark smoke. Something was amiss on that horizon and they were glad to be heading east instead.

Late in the second evening, an alert Kris spotted the ruins of a temple atop a bald hillock in the distance. Flying in closer, they realized this was the shrine they were seeking. They made a couple passes over the area and then went on for a landing, upon a flat overgrown patch of broken base stones.

Fall of the Guardians
...or the End of the Beginning

The demon scimitar carves through the ancient guardian's scaly hide. Kris swings her gore-splattered blade for a follow up attack and...

...it suddenly hardens like stone from within and explodes!

The surprising blast sends Kris and Killian reeling...

Kris dodges most of the blast of energy and debris created from the explosion of the petrified Behir. She shakes it off and glances over to see how Killian fares, before looking around to see if she can spot a key or the gate it is supposed to open.

The armored Goliath is thrown backward by the impact of the explosion. He growls and pushes himself into a sitting position, while looking around them.

Both Kris and Killian spot something spherical and covered in stone dust at the center of the blast zone. It is difficult at this range to determine exactly what this may be.

Examining the curious object closer, it appears to be made of some type of blue crystalline substance and is about the size of a human..wait..that is exactly the size and shape as a Human skull.

Kris sheathes her sword and looks to Killian. "The key? Not exactly what I was expecting to find." She leans down and picks it up, dusting the skull off as she does so to get a better look at its details.

As Kris picks up the the blue skull, a Chaos symbol appears etched into its forehead and the mandible begins to move. A voice, like a chill wind blowing through the cracks of a mausoleum speaks to her.

"Who hath awakened the Keeper of the Gate of Never?"

"Kris Amani." She answers. "Lady Kris Amani. Companion to Killian Maal." She adds to her introduction. "We seek the gate to the city on the edge of forever. Can you guide us there?"

"Ask and ye shall receive, my Lady."

Kris and Killian feel a slight tremor in the ground below their feet. At the top of the broken steps, near the free-standing archway, a stone pedestal pushes through the soil and debris. It rises up to approximately four foot in height and stops.

"You may proceed..."

With a quick glance to Killian for comment, Kris carries the talking blue skull over to the pedestal. She brushes her free palm across the top of it and gently lowers the skull onto the surface.

"There. That's better. Show me what I must do next Keeper."

When there is a connection made between the skull and the pedestal, the crystalline cranium begins to glow from within. This radiance spreads down the pedestal and into the ground and moments later to the free-standing archway. The interior of the arch transforms with the glow. A runed portal appears in the eye of the arch and opens to reveal a glimpse of another realm.

A platform of dark stone, and beyond, buildings shrouded in the shadows of night.
"The Way is open..."