Kor-Avul-Thaa... finest jewel in the crown of a realm of sublime glory,
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greatest city in the Middle Kingdoms, mayhap all the world... Its splendid
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walls of shimmering crystal could be seen from a hundred leagues distant,
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kissed by the golden rays of the sun, or caressed by the ethereal fingers of a
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midnight moon. Its magnificent spires and citadels, built by generations of
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kings from the resplendent gifts hewn from the ancient bosom of the sacred
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Crystal Mountains, had oft' times been the bitter envy of rival emperors, and
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many were the sieges which Kor-Avul-Thaa had withstood and repulsed over the
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centuries, for powerful sorcerers did weave great spells of protection about
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the dazzling towers, and none may have passed unbidden through the vast
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sapphir ean gates of mighty Kor-Avul-Thaa...
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From the Journals of Sage Daelun
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[The Oracle of Kor-Avul-Thaa:]
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The sky rent asunder... black-winged devils surge forth from the void...
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A maelstrom of crimson fire burns above us... what carnage has thou wrought?
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Not sword, ballistae, nor burning brand
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Could e'er these walls aspire to breach,
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Yet now the city's fall is nigh,
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As elder rites black fiends unleash.
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High Lord of the Brotherhood of Dark Elucidation (Keepers of the
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Forbidden Books of the First Cataclysm): By Klatrymadon and Zuranthus, such
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ancient secrets we discovered within these sinistrous, worm-worn pages,
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Etched with darksome glyphs and sigils, bound with fearsome spells, An
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eldritch tide of stygian sorceries unfettered by the forbidden Tome of
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Shadows...
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Now thunderous cataclysm befalls the gleaming Kor-Avul-Thaa (The mystic
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gate stands open!) The Xytaxehedron held to the stars... the incantation
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uttered with eager tongues... (What long-shackled powers of the elder dark
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have our conjurings loosed?)
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By Klatrymadon and Zuranthus, the vortex blackens the stars above,
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A vast plague of amorphous horrors descends to rend with fang and talon,
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(As with torrents of blood the crystalline walls run red?)
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And in the glooming chambers of our shadowed sanctum, we wait, half-mad with
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terror,
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To reap the slaughterous harvest which we have sown...
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[The Chronicler of the Cataclysm:]
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And beyond the vortex, the churning black waters of the void did disgorge the
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Dwellers in Eternal Shadow,
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And upon a horde of winged horrors, brandishing swords of ebon flame, they
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rode out from the Gate...
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And a terrible silence fell upon Kor-Avul-Thaa...
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[The Echoes of the Oracle:]
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The sky rent asunder, black winged devils surge forth from the void...
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A maelstrom of crimson fire burns above us... what carnage has thou wrought?
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[The Chronicler of the Cataclysm:]
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The Chronicles of Time speak of only two other instances when the sky did
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split wide and bleed forth such a torrent of horror as that which assailed
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Kor-Avul-Thaa... One of those times was the fateful eve when the moon burned
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black over ancient Lemuria, as a legion of ravening fiends emerged from the
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Outer Darkness to visit catastrophe upon that realm... And the other... the
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other manifestation of such a staggering cosmic evil is recorded only in the
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ancient Scrolls of the Third Circle, a dark collectio n of terrifying
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blasphemies which was believed to have been burned by the Order of Kl'aa at
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roughly the same time as the first Tome of Shadows was discovered deep within
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the Black Pyramid... These scrolls speak disturbingly of visitations to our
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earth by creatures from a terrible place known as the Black Galaxy...
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creatures which were able to span the vast expanses of time and space
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separating our world from theirs in their great dark chariots, bringing
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pestilence and carnage whenever they set foot upon the earth... And yet, the
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scrolls also speak of the Others, known by some ancient, long-dead tribes as
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the Travelling Ones... beings who did stand against the denizens of the Black
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| Galaxy and wage war with them across the nighted void. It |
