'Twas a Time of Dread by Clive Wilson Episode 3 of the Silent Song trilogy Fantasy 1991

About the Story

'Twas a time of dread. The land, once so fair, now ravaged by the greatest pestilence since the time of the "Black Wanderer" and the "Unborn one". Three thousand years have passed, years in which the once beautiful land has all but been destroyed.

For three thousand years nothing has been heard of the "Mysterious Stranger", but now on a dark, wet and windy night be returns, to you, a descendent of the "Singer of the Song". You are a mere child, still flushed with the vigour of youth, but it is to you he comes. You who have never done anything heroic in all of your seventeen years.

The Stranger tells you that when the "Black Wanderer" sowed the seed of the "Unborn One", so too did he sow another seed... the one which would lie dormant until the time was ripe for it to burst forth. As the seed lay dormant however, it matured and then mutated, it divided and became many and called itself LEGION though it was more than just one being. It was many, it was Legion and through its numbers would it gather strength. The multi-faceted evil then spawned upon the land, but it spawned far to the east, far beyond the Eagleshorn, beyond Darklen Moor, beyond the borders of the realm, in the unknown reaches of the place known as the "Saddest Lands".

The "Mysterious Stranger" tells you that although the "Silent Song" has been lost, it too has mutated. It has mutated within YOU ... into something more than what it was. But he cannot tell you what. It is for you and you alone to discover. He leads you to the giant bird Sebac, who is to carry you over the Eagleshorn to the realm of Legion and there bids you farewell. You must now set out on the giant bird in the direction of the realm of Legion and there do what you will to stop the evil spreading to the west...

And so, Sebac sets you down on the "Plain of the Uninvited" and with a lingering glance in your direction, soars into the blue sky and vanishes over the golden horizon.

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