The Flame of Hartstone
Written by: Anonymous
Date: Saturday, March 17th, 2007
Addressed to: Everyone
Strange weather descended on the Serenwilde Forest, bringing with it
powerful winds, torrential downpours, and freezing blizzards. For days
these storms raged across the forest, threatening to leave the
Serenwilde in a wake of destruction never before felt. Many brave
members of the Commune went out in search of the cause of this
phenomenon, only to return with little in the way of answers, until
finally it was discovered that the Spiritual Flame of the Hartstone was
burning in a chaotic flux.
The voices of the Serenwilde ancestors, held within, screaming out as
the Flame weakened, and causing the Serenwilde to feel their pain and
confusion. The Hartstone brought their nature guide, Dain to look over
the Flame and after a couple days he announced that he had deduced the
problem, sending the Hartstone in search of Nintoba's mausoleum, or what
might be left of it if anything.
Serenwilde set out in search of the ruins, and as the ground grew slick
with mud, the entrance was revealed, members of the Serenwilde literally
slipping inside the dark stone rooms, left burnt and scarred from
Serenwilde's past. Facing a large wall of earth before them, however,
they realized they could go no further and set out to find the means to
get beyond.
Time passed, and the key to the wall's secret was learned. As the wall
crumbled away, by the power of nature itself, a morass of vines grew up
to form a doorway through its middle, and the Serenwilde was able to
pass beyond and discover the former resting place of the great centaur,
Nintoba. Searching further, they found themselves face to face with an
altar, floating above which was the Spear of Nintoba. Laying a small
flower, that had dropped from the wall blocking their earlier path, onto
the altar; it quickly withered and left behind a small pile of incense.
The Seren quickly returned to Dain and the Spiritual Flame, watching as
the incense was laid into the Flame causing billows of intoxicating
smoke to fill the room. As the heady smoke filled their senses visions
of the past swam before them, bringing a subtle reminder of who they
were to their minds. Moments passed as the Seren sat in silence, taking
in all they saw, and as the smoke cleared the Flame returned to its
normal state. Turning to Dain for guidance he advised the Seren that the
storms would cease, the Flame was not only healed, but stronger than
before.
Penned by My hand on the 24th of Juliary, in the year 171 CE.