Tales of Augelond-CH1.1

The hatred in it was intense. As intense as the darkness it lived in was impenetrable.

As intense as the plan it had for the future.

Neither man nor beast, it was a fiend directly from the Pit. Its long, silver mane sprouting from between two curved, knifelike horns was ill-befitting to the sharptoothed gorral skull it wore it called its head. A sickly greenish glow emanated from somewhere far behind the empty eye sockets. It called itself GRAAL, (in its own tongue, master of darkness) and had dwelt silently in the caves of lllos for many years. since the arrival of the Settlers, in fact.

The Settlers had brought life to much of Augelond, harvesting grain where once there had been barrenness, building villages where once rotting corpses filled the air with noxious fumes.

-Even causing prosperity to arise from among the crashing waves of Duun.

Yes, the Settlers had been an influence for all that was hateful to Graal in all the land. All, that is
except the Mountains of Mor, where he resided. Many times did they try to corrupt his stronghold in the shadows with life, and always he drove them back into the comfort of their tiny huts. Over time they had advanced on him, even building their center of commerce, Augevilla, in the shadow of those dread hills.

He had waited far too long for this.

Aarden Uunt was sitting at his desk in the office of the little third-floor apartment his family called home, running his fingers through his already mussed golden hair. They had moved here last summer from the family home in the country; times were hard, and the city held promise of jobs and prosperity. There was a lifetime of memories attached to the old homestead, true, but you can't pay the bills or put food in hungry mouths with memories. The city had fixed all that, but at what price? Even as he sat at his desk, Aarden could feel the gears of the city pulling him down, threatening to crush him and his family, pulling them deep into the darkness of the caves that ran beneath the town. Sweat broke out on his forehead and ran down into his left eye, making it sting. They would never get out. He could feel that.