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| Chateau Vondarkla |
Designed by Arethusa Suggested Levels "And I love you too," Dach assured her. "That is what will keep me safe. I won't fall victim to her. But I need to try to stop her." With that, the young wizard ventured forth, leaving his love to seek out the lich rumored to lure her victims with her beauty. He started south, wandering toward where the fields are overgrown and the clouds convene. After only a few miles, the dark figure of a chateau began to emerge from behind a thick fog. As he neared, the scent of undeath grew stronger. As he reached the courtyard walls, he stepped from the overgrown trail onto a long, winding pathway. He wandered blindly through the brush, which grabbed at his legs, and stumbled through dangerous and marshy terrain. Entering a small camp, Dach was greeted with deteriorating tents. Slipping into one of the dwellings, he met a frightened woman. "Do not worry," he said to the elderly woman, garbed in silk. "I am here to help you." The woman's eyes brightened at Dach's offer of help. She explained to him how the mistress of the chateau, the great lich Vondarkla, has drained the life from the village that once bustled on the grounds. Now consumed by the dark magic, the surviving residents have been relegated to tents in the shadow of Vondarkla's rule. Explaining to Dach the horrors of Vondarkla's chateau, the woman asked the young wizard to stop the foul mistress. Handing him a bundle of garments to slip in unnoticed, she wished him luck and warned against Vondarkla's seductive beauty. -=+=+=+=+=- The Mistress Vondarkla had just finished speaking with Nalfia, the undead guardian of the chateau's captives. Another one had died, her evil, underworld-dwelling minion had told her. "In a way, this protects me," the mistress thought aloud. "But without more souls to feed off, I will be weak, and my powers will falter." She turned to Nalfia and spoke in her youthful but icy voice: "Find me another soul to leech strength and youth from, will you?" As Nalfia turned to return to her fiery domain, Vondarkla lay in bed and beckoned a man servant, putting her hand on his tattooed arm and closing her eyes, drawing youth from him. His face twisted into a grimace of painful ecstacy until she released him, whereupon she got up to gaze out the window over her chateau's courtyard. -=+=+=+=+=- Dach had entered the chateau and battled his way past the creatures that haunt the halls. Unseen forces leaped from the shadows as he worked toward the bowels of the chateau. Venturing downward through the fire, the wizard, now weak and battle weary, heard a soothing, ethereal song. He was entranced by its calming notes and drawn farther down the passage. As he reached the end of the fiery tunnel, he caught only a glimpse of a great phoenix before he felt the sharp and stinging grip of a whip around his arm. Nalfia gave a quick yank on the handle of her whip, spinning Dach around to face the crazed-looking undead woman before she placed her hand over his face, sleeping him. -=+=+=+=+=- The wizard awake in a daze, hungry and weary. He reached his hand to his arm where Nalfia had lacerated his skin, but thick chains restricted his movement. His vision was blurred as he shook his head and tried to make sense of where he was. A pale figure came into focus as he regained consciousness. The Mistress Vondarkla stood in the doorway of his cell. As she walked toward him, he tried to remember his love back home, but the pounding pain of his wounds consumed his mind. She spoke in a soft and indiscernible tone, but the seductive lilt to her voice rang in his head. He was captivated by her beauty, forgetting about his past life and the pain he recently suffered. The chains rattled against the walls as the Mistress Vondarkla grabbed Dach's arm and drew strength from him. When she let go, Dach crumpled to the floor with a look of bliss on his face. -=+=+=+=+=- Vondarkla returned to her bedchamber. Though satisfied with her new captive, she laments the loss of the other. "There are only eight graves, and the seventh is now occupied," she says aloud to herself. "As each of my loves die, my heart is torn into a new piece. I fear I will never be able to face love as I did when my heart was complete. But I must stay young..." She notices a servant staring at her as she speaks, and she bats her eyes to draw him near. He approaches in a trance, and she reaches out, and takes his arm. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Copyright © 2010 Medievia.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. For more information contact: Webmistress: Soleil |