The Deathly Hallows: Caller in Darkness

Blogger's Note: This is the sixth episode of "The Deathly Hallows".  It picks up the story we began for the Halloween game in 2011 after that game.  Read on, and enjoy...

        The air was hot and stale.

        Particles of crumbling stone, decaying wood, and rotting flesh mixed with ash floated upward and in and out of the large open windows which lined the hall.  Above, a pale blue light filtered in through the windows and the floating debris creating shadows within shadows.  Below, pieces of broken bone were scattered across the cold, rough, stone floor, drifting into small piles along the edges by the walls.

        A thick, heavy silence lay over the hall.

        At the far end of the hall two long, blackened banners hung from the wall.  There was some kind of symbol at the center of each banner, but both were too badly decayed to be able to identify it.  Between the two banners, a large throne stood on the dais.  It alone was perfectly smooth and polished stonework, untouched by the persistent decay that permeated the hall.

        On the throne a dark, shadowed figure sat motionless, deep in thought, and silent as the grave.

        After a few moments, the hall began to echo faintly as with the sound of a hundred distant, indistinguishable whispers.  A shadow slid quickly across the floor toward the dais, and as it did so, the whispers grew closer and closer.  When the shadow reached the steps of the dais, it halted, and the whispers trailed off.

        “Reveal,” said a voice from the throne.

        Immediately the whispers began again and above the shadow before the dais a ghostly and ghastly figure appeared.  Its entire form was a translucent, swirling mass of perpetual motion.  Faces appeared, moved across the surface of the figure, and then disappeared again.  Each face was distorted and seemed to be crying out…seemed to be trying to get out…but no screams could be heard and no face ever escaped the swirling form.

        “I am the Caller in Darkness, my Lord, as you commanded.” 

        The swirling figure’s voice was a coalescence of many voices speaking at once, and as it spoke, it bowed its swirling heads before the dark one seated on the throne.  The whispers trailed off again.

        “Nerull has failed me.  He did not protect the Hallow, and now it is gone.”

        “Nerull is a fool,” the voices echoed.

        “Yes, he was.”

        The shadowy figure glanced at a small pile of ash and bone beside the Caller in Darkness.  The hall erupted again with the echo of a hundred whispers, and then was silent once more.

        “I can no longer sense the Hallow.  Someone is protecting it…keeping it hidden from.  This requires powerful magic.”

        “A wizard, my lord?”

        “Undoubtedly.  I warned Nerull not to underestimate them.  I told him that not all would have forgotten, and now his incompetence has lost me the Hallow and my doorway into the mortal realm.”

        The shadowy figure stared past the Caller in Darkness and did not speak.

        The Caller in Darkness waited silently for his master to continue.  The faces moving in and out and across the surface of his form began to move and swirl faster and faster as he waited.  Many of them glanced down at the remains of Nerull as they passed above them, screaming in terror without uttering a sound.

        After a few moments, the one seated on the throne continued, “Nerull allowed a group of men and elves to get to the Deathly Hallow before its power could be fully harnessed and the doorway between our worlds could be opened.”

        “Do you wish me to bring these men to you, my lord?”

        “No, they are nothing.  The wizard is the danger here.  Find me the wizard who sent them to that graveyard.  Find me the wizard who knew about the Deathly Hallow.  Find me the wizard who is now undoubtedly hiding it from me.”

        “Yes, my lord.”

        “Find where he lives, learn all that he knows, discover all his secrets, then bring him to me.  I want that wizard.  Do you understand?”

        “My lord, it will be done as you command.”  The Caller in Darkness bowed before the one seated on the throne.

        “Do…not…fail…me,” the shadowy figure said slowly and carefully.

        Several of the faces swirling through the Caller in Darkness looked at the pile of bone and ash, and the sound of a hundred whispers sprang up in the hall again, and just as quickly as they had come, the whispers died away.

        “I will not, my lord.”

        The Caller in Darkness bowed again and began to back away.  The Caller in Darkness turned away from the shadowy figure on the throne, and the hall again echoed with whispers.  As the Caller in Darkness faded again into shadow and glided back across the hall, its many faces stared transfixed at the dark figure on the throne and screamed in terror without ever uttering a sound.

Blogger's Note: Caller in Darkness will figure prominently in our game on October 26th.  It is a Dungeons and Dragons figure that's both very creepy and very cool.  Here's his Heroscape card for your preview.

Blogger's Note: Log on again next Friday for the next episode of "The Deathly Hallows".