• Ardo, the half-elven cleric and prince, had finally found what happened to his mother nearly 20 years ago. Swearing vengeance, he takes his friends along with the love of his life, princess Maelyn, to find and exact justice on the drow (dark-elves) that had taken his mother and left him for dead so long ago.

    They had successfully infiltrated the keep that had been taken by the drow, the same keep Ardo had seen in the visions given to him by a memory crystal. Once inside, they leave their dwarven warrior and half-elven rogue to defend the entrance while the rest of the group assaults the keep from the inside.

    After a few arduous battles within the keep, Ardo prepares to fight the leader of the drow who had taken his mother. But as he approaches the door, he hears a faint voice. Faint, but one so familiar to him. It was the weakened voice of his mother. Ardo charges in, Maelyn close behind him with her blade drawn.

    The sight of his weakened mother on an altar fills Ardo with rage. Above his mother is a sacrificial dagger, prepared to finish the ritual with the blood of an elven maiden.

    "Maelyn..." Ardo says to her, gripping his sword tight. "What are our chances?"

    "I don't know," she says to him. "But you must choose quickly..."

    "But what of you... Can you make it?"

    "Perhaps..."

    So far, Maelyn had dodged arrows and bolts and magical spells as if seeing them come from a mile away. Knowing this, Ardo was sure Maelyn would be able to survive. He hoped she would return to the other room for cover as he rescued his mother from certain death.

    Ardo charges towards the altar, his blood boiling in rage at these drow holding his mother hostage for a sacrifice. It only took a few seconds. He managed to stop the sacrifice, knocking the priest with the dagger away and grabbing his mother. At that same moment, Ardo's foster mother, High Elven Mage Isvel, appears. She had only broken through the drow priest's power when Ardo broke her concentration, giving enough time for her to come in and teleport them all back to the elven capital city.

    Ardo sets his mother down carefully, seeing she had gone through much suffering for nearly 20 years. But when he turns to look at Maelyn, he finds her lifeless body laying beside the group. In desperation he tries to heal her with medicine, spells and anything he could do, but she is gone. With her death at the hands of archers in the altar room, the blood of an elven maiden had been spilled in the keep, completing the ritual.

    All Ardo could feel now was a hurricane of fear, sorrow and rage. Holding in his arms the body of the woman he loved his entire life, he turns to Isvel, his foster mother who had taken care of him his entire life since he was found as an infant after the original drow attack. Through gritted teeth, Ardo speaks with anger and conviction.

    "Isvel... These drow will pay for what they've done. To me. To my mother. And to Maelyn. I swear that every drow will die for this."

    Maelyn is taken away, her soul taken by the sacrifice to the abyss, never to be seen alive again, while his mother remains unconscious from years of torture, being tended to by the best hears around. All Ardo can do is stay with her, glad to find his mother still alive and with him again, but crushed at the loss of the one he loved for so long. All he can do now is wait for his opportunity for revenge. Only this time, it will be for Maelyn instead of his mother.