The wind rustles the tall grass of the northern plains of Wrath. Out of the southwest, the wind races north to strain against the high stone walls of Wintershield. A druidess and a warrior, in the full black plate of a Horselord, slowly pace the parapet of the southern wall.

The Horselord mumbles absently a half-forgotten tune,

"The West Wind blows.... the wild-wood cries... and snow is on the bough...

The West Wind goes a walking
and about the walls it goes..."

"The Wind is heavy with the news it bears," speaks the druidess in a quiet but graven voice. ?The treacherous elves have again raised the standards of the deathless empire and seek to regain their lost glory. The human kingdoms in the South, incited by the heretical Malornists of the Temple of the Cleansing Flame, clamor for a war to establish the dominance of humankind in the world. And even more dire is the news from the North. The beastlords are increasing in power it seems; the numbers of were-beasts venturing forth from the North is on the rise. Even in the Southlands the numbers of werewolves is becoming noticeable, and from what I hear...? the druidess paused momentarily, ?from certain sources, the forest sanctuaries of the rangers across the face of Wrath are experiencing an even more pointed increase in their own numbers and in the numbers of were-creatures amongst their members. So, we may be facing a two front war??

?Yes, Triana,? interrupted the Horselord, ?you are right as always. Messengers must be sent out to all of our kindred, even those that have been rejected from our numbers in the past...?

?Tiros Damebix,? the druidess hurriedly interjected, ?isn?t exactly? the most open minded when it comes to,? and here again the druidess gave another long pause choosing her words carefully, ?deviant individuals. His love for well ordered discipline is not small and it has saved him on the battlefield numerous times. I doubt his mind will change so rapidly??

?It will change; it is becoming overwhelmingly clear that the Winterwatch and the High Guard must be reinforced if we are to weather this coming storm. Especially after so many members of our holy orders heeded the preaching?s of Lord Cardinal Ssly Underdepth and the Crusader Merek the Mad and traveled of the shard to ?Bring the light of the All-Father to a fragment that is completely enshrouded by darkness?. I say there?s plenty of darkness here. The chaos gate remains open and the dark island of the undead can still be seen from the coast? But what?s done is done. For the moment Damebix will understand the gravity of the situation. The messengers will be dispatched.?

?And what of my own breathern? What of my own brother, Patman, for that matter? He was exiled by Damebix before, not many are comfortable with the sources of the Rangers powers. Or for that matter even some of my own? abilities??

As the druidess spoke she reached up and tossed back her hood revealing a soft young face, framed by long locks of a vibrant rust-like hue. Mumbling a few words under her breath she lightly placed her hand on Angelmar?s mailed shoulder.

A soft green glow surrounded the pair for a moment.

Angelmar?s eyes widened with realization and seizing up his Infernal spear, a prize from a battle near the Chaos Gate, he spun it forward and made three quick jabs, head, chest, and groin, at an invisible foe. To Triana his actions were blurred; the blessing of the Serpent Beastlord had increased the Horselord?s speed to such a degree that he might make two or three strikes for every one her eyes caught.

Giving a slight shake of his head Angelmar spoke again. ?We keep the High Watch to ward against the return of the Beastlords. Your devotion to Briallia is admirable, but the source of some of your powers,? the Horselord paused for emphasis, ?can unnerve even those with the most open of minds.?

The Horselord let out a resigned sigh and his voiced softened. ?Your brother and any others of our kind that take hold in his Forest Sanctuary in the forests surrounding the Ashfell plain will be welcomed and find a home, once again, in Wintershield. You have my word, Triana.?

Two weeks later

Somewhere in the deep snows of Frozen Island of Vorringia, far to the north of Wintershield.

A young Ranger in Centaur barding and the lighter hunting chain of his order fights through deep drifts snow. He races against the falling snow as it attempts to erase the tracks he is following?the only clue he has to finding his goal. A half day passes in this fashion, but then the afternoon sun at his back glimmers of something in front of him, drawing his eyes up from the ground.

Walls of Ice?

He thought to himself. The ranger closed half the distance to the walls and then, not for the first time wished he was as agile as some of his two legged brothers. Two axes singing as they flew into the wind cut through the air where the rangers head had so recently been.

Damnit. The ranger knocked and drew in a fluid movement loosing an arrow in the direction the axes had come.

?RRAaaAH! I wouldn?t do that If I were you. I missed you on purpose, ranger,? roared a Half-Giant stepping out from behind a tree.

Pondering whether that was a veiled threat or he was just not very good with his axes, the Ranger lowered his bow. His mission wasn?t to get himself killed 1000 miles from Wintershield anyway.

?What brings ya here. And don?t try to run away. None of that racing the hare or chasing the wind business you Rangers find so amusing. Make a move too fast and he?ll get you.? The half-giant pointed over the ranger?s shoulder, where much to the young ranger?s surprise, a barbarian of a slighter build stood twirling a throwing spike.

Well in that case?

?I?m Viral. I am a Winterblade and I carry a message for Barnes Swiftaxe who rumor has it lives near here. I near beat the wind in getting here. The message is from Damebix, Tiros of the Winterblades, Lord of Wintershield.?

?Southlander then? you're realms and cities don?t mean much to us here. Perhaps the clan should deliver you and your message back to this Damebix in person. A few weeks of raiding the southlanders would make for a nice little break from the fighting here in the north.?

?But?Barnes you say? hmm? maybe we will just save you for dinner instead. Centaur and horse taste much the same incase ya weren?t aware.? And with that the barbarian let out a mad maniacal laugh and continued laughing in his deep booming voice all the way to the ice gate.

Damn fool thinks he?s the funniest thing in the world?

Entering the ice fort, Viral was surprised by the size of the Barbarian clan he had stumbled upon. The construction of the city was peculiar though. The city seemed divided into two camps, each crowned by a great mead hall facing the tree of life. On one side the construction looked unfamiliar to the ranger the other vaguely resembled the architecture of Wintershield or even his former forest sanctuary. Carefully Viral reached back for the message he carried, though when his hand left his pack it actually held two pieces of parchment. One in the angular hand of his Tiros, the other in covered in arcane script.

I could just recall... damned responsibility. What the hell was I thinking, when Patman called for volunteers?

A crowd of townsfolk, mostly women and children, soon began to gather around the new arrival.

Surely if Barnes makes his home here I?m not the first centaur they?ve ever seen! The hardiness of the Invorri blood isn?t lost on these townsfolk, even if they aren?t warriors. Their women are giants too!

Much to Viral?s relief three centaurs soon appeared out of the eastern great hall. The tallest had a full black beard spilling out under his chain helm. He looked quite grim and battlescared, raised scars from old gashes adorned much of his body. Something about the way he walked though bespoke a stoic nature.

With someone to heal him I bet he could kill anything. Hah. Probably has taken the short dark road home a few times all the same?. Though from the scars not anytime recently.

?You have a message for me, no??
?Guess that depends who you are?.I have a message for Barnes Swiftaxe. It?s from??
?Well you found him.?
Taking the parchment from Viral, he quickly broke the seal and read the letter. Twice.
?Recalling the High Guard?. Hmm?An interesting twist of fate. Not so many years ago Tiros Damebix had myself and my fellows forced out of the Cohort. ?Undisciplined Rabble? I believe he called us. Given your armor and bow I take it Patman has brought his Ranger?s Brotherhood back into the fold.?

At this moment three other men approached from the western great hall. Two looked to be half-giants and the human might have even had a touch of giant?s blood in his veins. Barnes took a long look at them.

?If times are dire enough for Damebix to swallow his pride then powerful forces truly are beginning to shift on Vindication. Evidence of this can even be seen here,? giving two of the newly arrived barbarians significant looks.

Barnes then began to speak to Viral though the message was more for the barbarians standing beyond the ranger. ?My path was chosen for me long ago; with the Chaos Gate open and the Beastlords regaining strength, I will not abandon my duty to Kenaryn. I will uphold the High Watch, and should things turn truly dire and Kenaryn returns to us to marshal the cohorts and lead us against the enemies of Helgaron, I will be there. I would not miss the marshalling of the cohorts for the world.? Now addressing the Barbarian directly, ?I and all of my kindred that are loyal to me will be leaving, Vaelgarth. Our bargain is finished.?

?Like hell it is. We?re going to continue raiding and you?re going to keep your men here. We will conquer this realm with a few more raids and a well timed siege. Your end of the bargain ain?t finished,? the half-giant stepped in front of Barnes and ran a hand down his axe haft.

?The oath is fulfilled. I promised to raid with your clan and I have. Long before your kind walked Aerynth, the centaur had already spilled blood in the defense of this world and in the service of the True Gods. My duty and my oath is an ancient one. My race has been in the service of Kenaryn and the All-Father before the Dragon rose and time began. . It was the paragons that stood true against the dragon and forged the alliance that closed the Chaos Gate.?

?That?s nice an? all but I don?t tend to agree??

Vaelgarth grabbed up to haft of his axe and Barnes with surprisingly quick movements did the same. Two beastial growls issued from Vaelgarth?s companions and a second later two huge werebears stood to either side of Vaelgarth.

?I?ve suppressed my concern about some of your men for awhile. Time I let the All-Father sort you out."

Barnes let out a roar of pure bloodrage and buried his axe into the werebear. One of Barnes? companions sounded a hunting horn and then began to force one of the werebears back into his true skin. Centaurs began to pour out from the eastern side of the city.

Viral, surprised by all of this, came to his senses and began to feather the nearest werebear. The new arrivals were the final stroke, though, as two werebears and the half-giant were dead and bleeding in the snow. Men, women, and even a few Aelfborne began flooding out of houses and huts and rushed towards the bodies and the newly arrived centaurs with whatever weapons had come to hand. A crack of thunder came and lightning lanced down in area around the bodies.

Bloody Stormlords?. Where?s a druid elder when ya really need one.

Barnes? roar brought Viral back from his own thoughts. ?Move! Charge the south gate. Aeron! Argonath! Ruiner! Rearguard. Move!?

Four days later...

?Looks like I won the bet? it took four days but your lot seems to be winded finally?but that?s okay. The gate is only a little farther south.? Ten very prideful, but tired looking barbarians glared at Viral.

?When you?re done gloating, long winded one? maybe you ought to take a look at the tracks that are littering the snow?? commented Barnes in a low steely voice.

Damn. How did I miss?

?These are human tracks. Many of them were heavily armored. The tracks are very recent, the falling snow has barely begun to fill them?. Impossible that the Vaelgarth could have beaten us here? we rivaled the wind in our race south.?

A great cry suddenly split the silence and the din of steel on steel reverberated through the snow laden woods. The barbarians were on their feet immediately. All weariness seemed to fall from them at the prospect of a battle. An immense amount of pure blinding light flashed and was gone, but in its wake came the last screams of the dead. A crimson winged figure rose up above the trees.

?Templars! Damn. Everyone forward!? and at his word the centaur host launched into a dead sprint towards the sounds of battle and death.

The scene that opened up before Viral?s eyes was disheartening. The Erkenring was held by a large group of Templars and confessors backed by a surprisingly large contingent of warriors and channelers. Elements of a Cathedral war party were streaming through the gate but were greatly outnumbered. Crusaders, Sentinels, Prelates, and even a few channelers and bards all fought shoulder to shoulder trying to hold a small section of the runegate.

The air suddenly became heavy and Viral?s world was again bathed in blinding light. When his vision cleared they were close enough to make out actual figures? and bodies. In the snow just north of the gate was the corpse of a sentinel? surrounded by the corpses of two winged templars, a confessor, and a channeler in the robes of a Pyromancer.

Light, those sentinels sell their lives dearly?

?Viral, Argonath, Aeron, get on those mages!?

Fire filled the structure of the runegate. Confessors and Pyromancers rained death from the upper circle, while the templars and the warriors kept the holy warriors hemmed in on the lower platform of the runegate. Brilliant white light scourged many a crimson clad figure though, but the holy warriors, many of them centaur, lacked the room to maneuver.

This seems too well planned to be a chance encounter?

At the front of the press, though, stood a dwarf sentinel resolutely holding his ground defending the rune portal and protecting his disoriented comrades as they arrived through the gate.

Damn?that dwarf has the All-Father?s eye, and maybe the Thurin?s too!

Four templars were trying to take off his head, while lightning and fire rained down around him and yet he still refused to give an inch. The charge of the centaur barbarians soon changed that. Taken from behind, the templars and warriors at the gate were forced to turn to the north or be rode down and slain. The axes of the barbarians are cruel weapons and did their job well, piercing the armor of the templars or else staving it in and pinning the man inside. The surprise the charge generated was enough, a knot of Crusaders broke through the ring of steel and ran south mounting the stairs and began to assail the Pyromancers and confessors that moments before had rained fiery death upon them. The fight continued but the battle was over. Without a numerical advantage or a strategic position the Temple was routed from the field.

Panting and out of breath, the Crusaders, Sentinels, and Prelates at last took their ease. ?That was well-timed, wouldn?t have dreamed I?d be saved by a press of barbarians, though if it was to happen it?s no small surprise it was centaurs that came to the aid of the All-Father?s servants,? commented the dwarf sentinel, while laughing at the absurd chances of the whole situation. ?Cool Waters is the name I?ve taken in this roofless world. It was a pleasure to be saved by ya.?

Barnes remained unmoved, though the humor was not lost on Viral or many of the other barbarians. Looking around Viral was soon taken aback.

I know these people?

?Morion? Ssly? Lazarus! Hah, even Merek.?

?Yah, we all made it in one piece. Though I?m not sure what will happen to those that died so soon after traveling between fragments,? answered Ssly a dour gray figure in the plate armor of Prelate of the Church.

?Aye,? rumbled the dwarf, ?We were hard pressed to win a clear path to the gate on that Forsaken fragment. Cults of the Scourge abound and many times we found ourselves hard pressed. And a chaotic madness is about. Cohorts road against us, and the Temple rather than fighting the rampant Chaos scourge on the fragment, often assailed Cathedral outposts.?

Merek, unusually silent, finally spoke. ?It was Thalakos that saved us. We were trying to establish contact with the Order of Sentinels at Bastion or see if the there even was a Bastion on that fragment. We arrived through the gate to Maelstrom. Everything seemed to be fine. When we arrived at Bastion, or at least its walls, though, we found them overrun by demons and Morloch?s servants. Bloodhorns, demons, and nephlim chased us north. The flight was long and losses were heavy. Eventually we were able to double back and made for the gate. Somehow more demons were waiting for us there. Caught between the two, we were forced to fight our way on to the gate. We thought all was lost, when suddenly there was a flash of light. It lasted only a second, but immediately Thalakos roared at us to win the gate and he would hold back the pursuers. There was a righteousness in his voice and he turned and gathered our pursuers around him and scourged them all in almost continuous bursts of holy energy.?

Ssly picked up the story from here. ?We won the gate and traveled to Ulwers gate and gathered in Greensward Parish. I was the last one though. Thalakos was surrounded by ranks of demons and nephlim. His doom star never was still for a moment and the holy energy he channeled was slaying some foes before they got within range of his hammer. Thal never came through the gate, nor did his soul return to the tree of life. At Greensward we learned that a new power had been granted to us by the Archon?s styled after the centaur hero Darius. Some have mastered its use but none have been able to replicate Thalakos? feat of using a non-holy weapon for a focus or channeling near that amount of energy for that period of time. Whether he died and his soul was somehow tainted and lost in the nether or he fights on still on Maelstrom, the council of cardinals present canonized Thalakos and renamed the cathedral in our Wintershield outpost in his honor.?

?Well, we were hoping to have an uneventful journey back to Wintershield. In fact?? Ssly stood on the gate an began to chant and soon one of the portal stones began to glow with activity. ?Let?s be gone before the Temple chooses to try their luck again.?

Seven Days Later: Wintershield

The assembled cohort of the Winterblades stood before the newly rededicated Cathedral of St. Thalakos in Wintershield on Wrath waiting for the Tiros to appear. Not long did they wait. He soon strode out of the Cathedral with Angelmar, his brother Ssly the prelate, and Triana. Damebix looked out over the gathered host and collected himself and then began to speak:

All of you have answered the call to defend Wintershield and bring death to the enemies of Kenaryn that still threaten this fragment of Aerynth. I say to you now that I am convinced that the source of all these evils, the spread of chaos cults throughout the land, the increased power of the Beastlords and the surging vampire presence, is NOT on Wrath. We may win the field here on this shard, yet elsewhere on other fragments of the shattered globe of Aerynth the war of Helgeron and our Father may still be lost.

Triana and the Council of Druids believe that the increasing strength of the Beastlords and surge in the power of both the Chaos legions and the Black comes from the fragment Vindication. Angelmar believes he is now wise enough to open a gate between the two worlds as the Patriarch of the Church on Wrath did for many of our Holy Orders. I will not lay aside our races ancient burden now. Whatever may come and however cruelly it may end for us?I go to Vindication. And any that wish to follow me down this path and perhaps earn a true death worth a song in the service of Kenaryn may follow me!

A great cheer echoed off the walls of Wintershield and was picked up by the wind and carried off. While the noise echoed still in the air, Triana walked up next to Angelmar and put a hand on his back whispering into his ear?

?You were right about Damebix? you set in motion what must come to pass. The Gathering is complete.?