Call of Light

[Clerified]

Looking over the organized stack of papers on the book-shrowded working desk he had taken over, he carefully re-read over each copy of his parchment and addressed them accordingly. Kurich, Templar of Marduk; Kisanth, Paladin of Marduk; Napsutes, High Priest of Marduk; Tillirinn Showra, Paladin of Marduk; Spirithealer, Elder of The Whirling Serpent; Cirran Silverwind, Archdruid of Ki; Haffur Ironmane, Thane of the Flamefists; Sulinus Hainford; Sulinar Firebeard; Tagnus Cavernhold; Wesley Battlehammer; Galek Haingorn; Whitney, Paladin of Girru; Shalandra Velvax, Captain of the Kingseekers; Yunalesca Brasscobble; Syndir Isendur, Brigadier of the Redboot Brigade; Falson Almoran, Keeper of Dragonwatch; Lone Starraiser, High Priest of Anu... This was the beginning of the list of letters to those of whom he still hoped he could contact. Tiredly, he leaned back in the creaky chair of the common room within Daris's hospital.

I know you're all busy, but the future... is so far away. And I can only last for one second more in the eyes of time with all it's pain and sorrow.

He felt a decade older without the familiar faces around to share their radiant ambitions. Trying to find a thought from the ones that had escaped his mind, it was hard to believe... but he couldn't imagine the last time he'd seen them on a normal basis. Perhaps he was the only one without a cause worthy of leading him out of the plain hospital walls.

Forgetting his lonely reprieve long enough to find the task at hand important enough for completion, the withered priest finished proof-reading:

Friends and allies of Daris,
The quiet peace in our home that has been acquired by the deeds of all of you has kept the innocents safe from harm by the armies of Varana, and countless other enemies. No longer does the threat of darkness linger in the minds of young ones and even the elderly who have seen much in their time. We have done well.
However, outside of the minds of the villagers, lying in a blanket of emassed gloom and pain, the threat of darkness looms hidden and in wait of the chaos and destruction that seeks to destroy all law and order. I speak of a heavy shroud of emassed forces of shadows that our endeavors have yet to cast out into the light, forces that have remained hidden since the beginning of our war on the land, and grows yet still more powerful in the wars of the gods in heaven.
Recently, followers of the dark gods have shown sleight of hand in evidence to my beliefs. I am not unconvinced that all the bad deeds of men and gods alike are linked by rising hunger and greed for power and control. Since the breaking of the mace of power that arose the first conflict between Marduk and the dark gods, so started the brink of war among the people of Dasaria and the forces of evil. That evil shows itself now. And to be rid of it, we will have to battle it face-to-face.
For long, we have repelled them head-on whenever they have struck us, wherever we have suffered losses. Now it is time to strike back to regain true peace and order in the land, and to dispel the fog of shadow in the air once and for all.
After long years and countless days and hours spent in retrospection, the source of our blight has come to be revealed to me. We are pushing back the armies. We are taking out the tyrants. The power of evil remains. And it will always exist, yet the manifestation blights our freedom and the lives of our loved ones from the depths. Tiamat hungers for control over her victims. Alinkahar devours innocents in its path. Nergal's power stretches forth from beneath our eyes.
Followers of these dark gods have risen in our wake as we fight the evil we see. War paths defer us as servants of Tiamat network their forces deep underground. Nergal's influence runs far beyond the fortress of Kracc's island. Dasaria's temples are desecrated from within and its clergy corrupted for Alinkahar's own agenda.
I know you have felt the current and everlasting effects of this heavy cloud of shadow that weighs heavy on my mind as I remain here in the now quiet center of the place where we first stood our ground against the forces of evil. The peace of the village of Daris and the outlying areas that once lie under seige now shine as beacons of peace for its people. The city of Dasar and its temples and many keeps that were in ruin now tower high and fortified. As a nation, we thrive. But as the spirit of the driving force that frees us, each of you know the binds that repress us still remain.
Comrades. Generations grow in neglect to this knowledge that we possess, that we feel deep within our senses. In this village that I have now resided in for far too long without consequence remains the vortex of the amalgamut of all things that started and must end here. A call to heroes to gather once again must reach far and out to the vast regions that our conflicts have driven us to, so that we may combine our efforts to be rid of the dark evil we were all meant to fight against.

A melancholy smile for his long efforts to revive the names and find the proper contacts to deliver the messages out to their proper recipients, and he called for Fedra to gather the residents of the hospital together. Many had been healed here, many who knew many more, and it helped to be a priest when you needed a favor from a people for a task of such magnitude.

['Ling Niles]

A halfling cloaked in shadows walked the familiar road of the Old Baraan District as he read the letter over in torch light, he frowned and spoke to himself.

"Wonderful, flamin' cleric had to bring attention to this! Now that they think we're gonna do something about'em they're gonna do something about us and...hell...I'm not making sense to myself..."

The small figured burped, burned the note in the torch and continued walking into the darkness, leaving a trail of empty flasks dripping ale behind him.