In the spring of that year a wreck landed on the beach of Littlelake. As was their way the villagers set about clubbing to death the poor survivors as, exhausted, they made their way across the rocks. Then stealing the cargo and stashing it in the secret corridors of the Landry mine. Within a few days there was little left of the wreck but flotsam.
One piece of wreckage, a box, no bigger than a mans hand, came ashore by the marsh a few days later. It was found by David Brewer, a boy of twelve. Thinking he had treasure he carried the box to the orchards to find a quiet place. Once he knew he was out if sight he opened the box.
Inside there was a stone bead, black as the dark in the mine but somehow glowing, it's darkness drawing him in, calling to him in a low whisper …
A hour later David Brewer walked back into the village and beat his younger sister to death with a mallet.
He then set about his mother who tried to pull him off his sister and would have killed her but for the intervention of his father and brothers. He fought with them until, in a final tragic end, David's life was ended by his fathers own hand. He died with the word orchard on his fetid breath.
The family searched the orchard and found the box, now closed. David’s father took the box and had it hidden for it bore the name of the wreck upon it.
Two days later the trees in the orchard began to fail, first the leaves and blossoms fell off and then the branches and trunks withered. Within a week the family had no orchard. Instead of starting again in Littlelake they buried their dead and moved on, starting new trees by the Wagoner’s inn. Again the family flourished, but none who stayed in Littlelake did. Year on year life in Littlelake got harder as if the place were cursed.
Now, twenty five years later on the box has been found and it has been opened again. This time not by a boy but by one with the intelligence to understand what the box is and the will to resist its corruption … almost.
The box is not evil but evil will come of it, and now, as darkness looms over town of Thunder Bay, that evil must be faced and put an end to for who knows how far it might spread.
Now is a time for old friends and new enemies, a time when your disparate party is needed to fight for the place and the people who nurtured them in their early adventuring years.
Now begins the night of one hundred moons.
Modifié par PJ156, 05 décembre 2010 - 11:16 .
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