As happened many times in the past the Fell Ice once again charged down from the north and attacked the world in its effort to turn it into a frozen ball of ice. Only the White Magic and it's ally the Sun could stand against such a vast enemy.
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The Dark Lord stood on a snow covered rise and looked down upon the multitude of slaves as they shuffled by through the deep snow. His four acolytes stood around him as he watched and were connected to him mentally. All were sending the same question to him from their minds, "What is thy plan Master?" He ignored them and blocked his thoughts from their probes. He was the only one who felt the call to these frozen lands, but he had no idea exactly where they were to go. He only knew they must keep marching north. For now his acolytes and the black sorcerers who followed would have to be kept in the dark.
After a turn of raiding the villages and towns of the Nordic barbarians he finally gave the order to depart from those lands. The clans and tribes of the Nordic barbarians had risen and come together to fight off the evil in their midst. The Dark Lord knew it was time to leave. They now had over two thousand warrior slaves under their evil spell to fight their battles, but those would not be enough to defeat the horde hunting them. They also had over a thousand villagers, men, women and children, enslaved by their Black Magick for the sacrifices, the work details and the cook pots. They were useless as fighters against the barbarians, but would serve as useful fodder against an attack.
He created three more Dark Stars during their time in this country. He named them so because they stood at the the points of the pentagram when performing spells and the grisly sacrifices. It took five black sorcerers to carry out the ritual killing and receive the power gained from the life force in of the victim. With the help of a Black Magick spell he recruited three bands of five men each who were learning the ways of the dark arts. These were truly evil men with hearts as cold and black as his. Through the sacrifices and his teachings they were growing strong in the use of the spells of the magick. His acolytes named them the Black Fists and there were now four of the bands under his command. He had twenty-four Black Druids to do his bidding and control the slaves they had entranced.
His four original acolytes were almost as strong as he in the dark arts as they had been with him from the beginning. They did not have the dread of him as the other black sorcerers did and were not afraid to ask questions. Now they wanted to know why he was leading them into this frozen wasteland, a place where they would lose this slave army they had fought so hard to build.
Their journey together began in their home city of Tara in the County of Meath, in the land of Eire.* As small boys they were enlisted in the Druidic Priesthood as Ovates to learn the rituals and practices. They were all of the same age and became fast friends as they grew up together and went to their lessons and studies learning the ways of the peaceful Druids.
Their climb into evil had started on his thirteenth name day, the day of his passage to manhood, under a small disheveled barrow in the Hills of Tara. Led there by an eerie Will O' the Wisp the five boys entered a tunnel which took them to a small cavern under the tumulus. In the center of the chamber they found an ancient rune covered altar table. On the table they found a rune covered knife with a blade made of flint imbedded in the chest of a skeletal corpse. They had never seen the ancient runes before and had no idea they stepped into a dolmen infused with Black Magick. Unbeknown to them the shade of an evil Black Druid who was imprisoned under the barrow for an age by spells of Good Magick compelled them to perform a sacrifice on the High King's son who had tagged along with them. The shade of the Black Druid craved to escape his prison by using the boys as his pawns. Once they completed the sacrifice they became filled with a darkness from the boy's life force which turned their hearts evil and cold, filling them with a hunger for more sacrifices. After many sacrifices they grew strong in the dark spells and managed to defeat the shade's attempt to escape his ancient prison. Since those many turns ago they had led a life on the run growing strong in the Black Magick as they performed their ritual kills on the bloody table and compelling people to do their evil will. The forces of good, and evil, stalked them at every turn.
