Huanto regarded the darkness as his friend. His senses were keen enough to where he felt comfortable trusting his instincts over his vision. Too often in this world the eyes could be deceived. He sat, dressing his wounds in the darkness amidst the remains of the drudges he had just slaughtered. For the damage he inflicted on them, he reasoned that the wounds he had received were a fair trade.

He completed his field dressing, placed his wound kit back in his pack, and sat quietly in the darkness. Karnak's words came back to his mind and restored an unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach. If what he was told was true, and Huanto had undying faith in his patron, the entire kingdom was in great danger. Various scenarios ran through his mind, none of them ending with a desirable outcome. There was no avoiding it. Some of his paladin family, even Huanto himself, might perish. His heart grew heavy. Turmoil in the family always bereaved him of his good spirits. Yet, the thought of his king being controlled by one of the Virindi was just as unbearable. He abruptly changed his mood. "Nothing like trying to exorcize your own king to spice up your life", Huanto chuckled out loud. "Well, I'll be muled if I'm gonna let one of those legless, hedge-trimming bastards control my king!"

He had been sitting in thought so long that he had completely forgotten to check the drudge remains for loot. "Time to go find Lauryn", he concluded. She had mentioned something about Qalaba'r the last time they had talked. "Ill start there, at least I am tied to that lifestone". He stood with his item enchantment wand in hand as he prepared the spell that would transport him back to Qalaba'r.

He concentrated for a few moments; then began his chant and spell-casting motions. A peculiar low rumble emanated from his wand as the white vortex of magical energy swirled around his hands. Something was wrong. The rumble grew louder as the wand began to rattle and hum in his armor clad hands. Huanto tried to pull out of his cast, or at least drop his wand, but he was locked into the spell. The rumble grew to a deafening level and its pitch suddenly began to rise exponentially as the casting motions ended. His arm felt as though it was going to shake loose of its socket. The pitch increased out of perceptible limits and all was quiet for a brief instant as Huanto stared at his wand. He came to his senses and tried to throw the wand just a moment too late. An intense eruption of white light exploded in front of him, ripping through the darkness and flinging him violently backward. His body flopped like a rag doll against the trunk of an oak tree 10 paces away. His shoulder dislocated as his body crumpled in a heap on the ground.

He blinked a few times and looked over to where he had been standing. The intensely bright light still remained, but was surrounded by a massive whirlpool of swirling purple vapors. A gust of wind picked up leaves and debris and sent them hurtling towards the disturbance. The vacuum effect increased rapidly, picking up anything not weighed down and sucking it through the hole in space. Even mangled drudge parts where being swallowed by the strange occurrence. Huanto scrambled for his shield as it began to clatter and slide towards the vortex. The center of the disturbance flashed pitch black and the swirling vapors intensified. Suddenly, the entire phenomenon collapsed upon itself then exploded with deafening force. The massive blast knocked him back again as a shower of glowing purple sparks began to rain down. Huanto pulled his shield up to protect his face from the falling purple embers.

A few moments passed and Huanto peered from behind his shield then sat up. As far as he could see, small bits of faintly glowing purple sprinkled the landscape. He nursed his shoulder as he struggled to his feet. He felt a little tipsy and completely exhausted, both physically and mentally. He looked at his platemail gloves and noticed that the joints of his fingers had melted from where the wand had exploded in his hands. He staggered a step or two forward and looked around again. "OK," he said aloud, barely audible above the fierce ringing in his ears, "That was a little different!"

The sun was just hitting its zenith as Qalaba'r appeared on the horizon. "Its about time," Huanto panted, "I'm getting too old for this running junk." He thought about that for a moment. "Too old to run, but still young and stupid enough to replace a dislocated shoulder by bashing it into a tree!" He massaged the bruise from where his first attempt failed. "Hehe, and there wasn't even anyone around to impress." He chuckled a little more at his own expense as he neared the lifestone. Had he not been joking with himself, he might have noticed the peculiar lack of warriors in proximity of the lifestone. His jovial mood quickly turned to bewilderment as he noticed the outline of a large shreth in front of the stone.

Huanto was not in the best of conditions to be fighting, but he wagered that he wouldn't need to. "HEY!" he yelled. The shreth whipped his head around, startled by the distant voice. Blood oozed out of its mouth and ran down its body as it weighed its options. "Shoo!" Huanto yelled, pulling out a cestus. The shreth roared and quickly scampered off as Huanto trotted up to the lifestone. The sight that greeted him was horrifying.
The lifestone. It looked...dead.
It was pitch black and lifeless. Even more horrifying, dozens of bodies were scattered around the stone. Many of them so badly mangled, or eaten, that they were barely recognizable as human. Huanto stood in shock for a few moments, trying to process what he was seeing. It was not making sense. Where had the bodies come from? Huanto jumped at the sound of a low hum emitting from the lifestone. It was the same low rumble he had heard when his wand had nearly killed him. He instinctively began to back away. But the rumble stopped.

As the noise subsided a body materialized on the ground in front of him. It did not move. He reached down and turned the body on its back. He gasped and stepped back. The body was demolished. The entire upper torso was smashed in, the armor crumpled inward so far that it nearly touched the opposite side. The fallen warrior's internal organs seeped slowly out around the base of his breastplate.
Obviously, the work of a Lugian bolder.
But why was it here? Why did it not stay at the citidal?
Huanto froze. The citidal! Lauryn had talked about dropping in to fight in the citidal for a while. He panicked. "Lauryn!" he shouted frantically, pawing his way through the bodies and remains, hoping to not find what he feared. The more he searched, the more he was relieved. She was not here.