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Message from the TourneyMaster - Joe Parzanese Troubled times had fallen on the kingdom of New Obispo. An ancient evil, once thought dead, seemed to have risen again. This evil the powerful Mage-King had a hundred years ago, almost crushed the small kingdom with his magic. Now it seemed like he was going to try to do it again. Four armies marched across the lands of New Obispo, each converging on a separate town within the kingdom. Heroes were needed, and the mayors of the threatened towns enlisted the aid of four small parties to perform a strategic strike against each army. Out they went, across the countryside dodging strange patrols of evil creatures. One was baffled by illusions, another threatened by evil reptiles, a third invited to dinner by a vampire, and the fourth did battle on top of a moving tower. Many met their death along the journey. There was the one eaten by the octopus, another ripped apart by blades, and yet another had his very life drained from him. But after the leaders of the armies were slain, it became apparent that the plot ran much deeper. Ancient gods known as the Dark Ones were attempting to create a portal into this world. Their minions were scouring the lands for an artifact known as the Charity Crystal, an artifact that the forces of good kept running across. But the tale of the Charity Crystal was deeper than that. For it seemed to hold the soul of a poor girl known as Charity Sunshine, sister to the heroine of a past war called Tamara Sunshine. Our intrepid heroes raced against the Mage-King's forces (although now it appeared that he was but a puppet of someone or something even more powerful) to sources of power and information. First to the tomb of Tamara Sunshine, the ancient heroine. There they spoke to her ghost and realized the full extent of the evil that they faced. Next to the Valley of the Ages where the ancient Celestial Dragon known as Tien Lung and his owl sages told them the history of the Charity Crystal. From these sources the players discovered a treachery that went back over one hundred years, back to the Mad Mage Parzanese, once thought to be a hero. He had killed Tamara Sunshine, entrapped Charity's soul in the crystal, and forced the Mage-King to serve him. Now he was planning on creating a gate to the Dark Ones world to allow them entry into ours. Our heroes raced to confront him, racing across the lands to stop his ritual, doing battle with his evil henchmen, every step of the way. Many more died tragically. But one hero, Jason Carr, wrested control away from the evil mayor of Wattsburg and brought peace back to the town. As they marched on the gates to the Mad Mage Parzanese's castle, only six of our heroes were left alive. Over twenty had begun the journey. Upon entering the ancient castle, they found themselves in a thorny, twisted underground garden populated by all manner of strange beasts. The heroes were besieged by swarms of carnivorous squirrels, faced imminent peril from fire-spitting toads, and even faced a stampede of hell-spawned cattle. One of our heroes fell to the ghastly scream of a demi-lich (for that was the fate that Parzanese had bestowed upon the former Mage-King), but thanks to quick thinking on the part of the clerics in the party, they were able to save him. Soon our heroes faced off against Parzanese. In a race against the clock, they faced a seemingly undying army of clones, strange magical energies, and a small swarm of squirrels to prevent the evil mage from opening the gate. And upon preventing the gate-opening ritual, they were then forced to deal with the anger of an extremely old and powerful magician. Powerful magic on both sides was unleashed, but our heroes persevered (barely), and the Mad Mage fell dead before the portal. With their heroes written into the legends, our players after fighting the Mad Mage and his forces for over twenty-eight hours, went off to battle the Polycon auction. And our DM, having watched good triumph over evil once again, breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed with a can of Jolt.
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