ALTARUS: Gaze deep into the mists with your spirit-eyes, Xerxes look far, and tell me what you see
XERXES: I see a land far to the north a vast empire of dark endless moors and snow-crowned mountains a land of brooding citadels and warrior-kings who hail to grim gods
ALTARUS: Look well, Xerxes, for enlightenment hides within the fog-swathed vales of Hyperborea
The King's Dream:
By the onyx sceptre of my forefathers, the air is churning with auguries of dethronement
Impending dread thus prophesized!
In a dream I was bade ride the argent-eyed unicorn to the Ring of Stones
There a torrent of viscid slime assailed me, as pipes and horns sang the clarion of my dissolution
And the usurpation of my ancient azure throne
Assassins stalk the nighted halls of my palace poisoned blades and chalices surround me
I thirsted for a balm, but my thirst was slaked by an envenomed draught
My swordarm shackled by tendrils of sloth enthralled by the chasmed gloom
Borne upon wings of labyrinthine dread I awaken!
I shall seek the counsel of the sorcerer, keeper of the ancient scrolls of wisdom, and the Crystals of Power
The Words of the Sorcerer:
My liege, great and regal king the mists disclose their secrets you are destined to wield a great dark power Drink deep of the potions of the apothecary, for upon thee now I bestow a shard of the mystic Crystal of Mera sacred artefact of the Atlantean mages, won in battle by our legions My liege, the Crystal of Mera shall unveil the truth lurking hidden in thy most fever-haunted dreams
The Voice of the Harbinger:
The land awash with spilled blood, and viscera torn forth from the sundered dead
Gorge the earth with flesh darkened with t