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===( scrolls of serenia :issue #3: -May!- )==============================

-An On-Going Anthology-
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-The Scrolls of Serenia-
(LFiN.sOs)

? ? -?-?-???-?????-???????/\/?? Editorial ??\/\???????-????-???-?-?-- ? ?

Welcome to the third (yup, count em - one, 2, uhm, three!) issue
of the Scrolls of Serenia. I'm not sure exactly how many (if
any) people have been checking out SoS, but lately I have been
getting some replies (which is better than none) about how the
zine is definitely a good idea, and how most people aren't sure
they've seen anything like it before.

That's good...

I think...

Anyway, I personally think that SoS is proceeding nicely and I
would love to hear from anyone out there about what they think.
I don't currently have an internet email address, but you can
email Belial (his address later) and he will definitely route
your comments directly to me.

***Note to first-issue readers***
Well, if you're reading this and are at all interested, you
should take the time to look around for the previous releases of
SoS (issues #1 and 2) so that you don't get any more lost than
you _will_ be after you're done reading this issue.
***Note to first-issue readers***

This month, I handled the ascii (as I did first issue, and
Belial donated one for issue #2), which I think came out
somewhat nicely. The first issue's ascii plainly sucked, and so
I couldn't embarrass myself or SoS by making another punk-ascii
for the second issue.

Oh, and btw, I have officially changed my handle from "Warlock"
to Lord Finesse, so now all o you flaming idi0ts can find out
which of the thousands of Warlocks I really am...

But... Like I say every time at about this time, eenuff about
me, get to tha damned zine!

? ? -?-?-???-?????-??????/\/?? Reyhan ??\/\??????-????-???-?-?-- ? ?
? ? -?-?-???-????-??????/\/?? iii ??\/\??????-????-???-?-?-- ? ?
_______
|__ __| --+> ThReE ? pArt I <+--
| |
| |
|_|?lk slept quietly and at peace. He slept all through that
night and into the next day. I wondered when and if he would wake
up. He seemed to be in a state of madness while he slept, yet his
words and conversations stopped in the first night of his sleep.

Then, on the third day of his sleep, he woke. His awakening,
however, was not nearly as subtle as his sleep.

He rose from his bed and greeted me, saying, "Ah! Ray, my man.
Hurry! We must be off soon. Pack your trail gear, we must be
off!"

I asked T?lk if he had been feeling alright, what with his
previous illness and the scene in the square, and he calmed down
a bit to "explain" past events to me.

"My dear Reyhan, since my, [ehem], `encounter' with the angel in
the square, my illness has healed during my sleep..."

I accepted that, and I then asked him about this "being off" and
the like.

"Ah, that. Listen to me Ray, what I'm about to tell you might be
a little, eh, hard to believe..." and with that, the event in the
forest replayed itself in the back of my mind, "and all I can do
is hope that you will believe me and follow me.

"You see, while my body slept here, at home, my soul was taken
away to meet with Geldrion, of the makers, and I was told that I
had to fulfill a destiny and that you were to come with me.
Everything that Geldrion told me I can't remember all now, but
it slowly makes itself evident to me the longer I'm awake."

I looked at him, dumbfounded and confused.

"Ray?"

"Yo, Ray?"

"Raaaay?..."

I stood there for a minute, taking all he has just told me in
and applying it to the already-past events, and thus coming to
the conclusion that I had nothing else to do, so...

"aww, ahight. Since I got nothin better to do, and because I
need a good workout," I put my hands together and cracked my
knuckles, "I think my skills are gettin a little rusty."

__ __ --+> ThReE ? pArt II <+--
| |_| |
| | | |
\_____/hile I chose to sleep and gather my strength that night,
T?lk stayed up for what I gathered to be all night, mapping routes
and making plans for people to meet, places to stay, and other
little odds and ends that we had to take care of during this
quest which we were ready to set off upon.

The next morning, T?lk and I went to the town gates with our
packs, threw them over, and we clambered over ourselves. Once
outside the town, we began our trek, heading north.

Soon after our leave of Andrion, we encountered the first of
those "little" odds and ends I had anticipated.

We traveled through the forest of Andrion, and when we came to
the clearing, T?lk pushed me into a bush and pulled me down. I
began to speak and he made a quick gesture motiononing for me to
shut up.

I noticed he was intently watching something in the clearing,
and as my sight followed his, I noticed a man, a bounty
hunter-like character, kneeling down sniffing the ground and
running his hands over foot tracks.

T?lk, eyes still fixed on the hunter, wispered, "Friend of
yours?"

I, somehow unnerved by his question, then looked at the man
again and found that I did, in fact, know him.

Of all the other rival hunters I had, Danno had been the largest
pain in my ass for the longest time. They called him `The
Relentless'; I mean, damn, where he came from, his _name_
meant damage.

"shit."

"Heh. I thought so. But you can handle him, right?" T?lk said,
looking at me with a weak smirk on his face.

"Handle? Why, whatever do you mean my good man?" I said
mockingly in return, knowing what response was coming.

"To tell you the truth, he is in possession of something we
need."

"And what would that be T?lken, hm? Maybe a magic wand, or a
golden scepter? What could it possibly be?"

"No. It's a Pentagram."

"A Penta-what!@? You want me to just outright take this guy for a
Pentagram? Maybe you don't realize who this is. This is Danno
The Rel-"

"...you sound intimidated..."

"I am NOT intimidated, I mean, god-damn T?lk, the guy's name
means damage!" I shouted, forgetting the devil I spoke of which
stood in the clearing but a few paces from where we stood.

At that point, T?lk looked back into the clearing and
frantically stood up. I spun my head toward the clearing and
then I knew why. Danno was gone. This was bad.

"Gone?" T?lk said, dumbfounded.

"Nah, he's hangin around here somewhere." I came up behind T?lk,
who was now standing in the middle of the clearing, and motioned
for him to shut up. I opened my cloak, and handled the short
sword with my left, putting my right hand in my small satchel and
pulling a dagger.

Danno himself wasn't the smallest or the lightest of hunters,
but he was good. Not good enough, however, to move through the
trees unnoticed by, say, another hunter.

Danno himself was half Dwarf and half Man. No dwarf by himself
could be a hunter, they're not at all gifted with stealth. Me,
well, I'm mostly human, but I got just enough elven blood in me
to get by.

I strained to listen, but I could hear nothing. As a hunter, it
would seem that Danno is sitting still.

It was worse than I thought.

No hunter sits still in a tree unless either he's sleeping, he's
watching, or he's got backup. I doubted the first two and the
latter was the only option left.

I looked around slowly, completely calm. Gettin' hyped up before
little rumble has been the death of many good fighters.

Then I heard a small wisper from the trees, "ugh. ray?" the voice
said in light disbelief. Danno dropped from the tree and drew
his sword. "Ah my good friend Reyhan; the Royal Assassin! har-
har!" His men dropped shortly after and he waved them off.

Turning only his head around toward them, he said, "This is
nothing I cannot handle. Go twiddle your fingers ar something."
Then he turned back towards me, glaring intently and grinning
slightly, expecting a battle.

I presently motioned for T?lk to back off and he, unlike Danno's
peons, he silently understood and retreated to the edge of the
clearing. "Nothing would please me more, and nothing would make
my day more complete than to relieve you of the useless mass
upon your shoulders, but my companion and I need something from
you."

And then Danno stopped his glaring, sheathed his sword, and
spread his cheeks with a wicked smile. "And what would that be,
my fine fighter?"

"Professional."

"Oh, well then, I apologize. Maybe you should not be so forward
when it is you who wants from me, eh, 'professional'?"

"A, <ehem>, a Pentagram." I said.

"Ah," and his eyes lit up an illustrious and wicked red, "_my_
pentagram. Well then, my good man, I will be needing something
in return then, won't I now?" I knew he had a high asking price
for his services, but I knew Danno wasn't greedy, and that he
wasn't wanting money...

<+--| Reyhan :4: Next Issue! |--+>

? ? -?-?-???-????-?????/\/?? Natural Wonders ??\/\?????-????-???-?-?-- ? ?
? ? -?-?-???-????-?????/\/?? iii ??\/\?????-????-???-?-?-- ? ?

So there I was. Laying close to madness in a foreign place that
I've never seen before.

Oh yeah, and there was this guy standing there. It was that old
guy from the last dream I had. I looked up at him with a
confused look.

He stood there, hands behind his back, and hunched over to a
small extent.

"I have brought you here because there are forces working
against that which you must do. They attempt to rob you of your
possession and use it to their advantage..."

"Forces?...they?...uh...possession?" I was completely jumbled
by the move from where, eh, from wherever I was, to, eh,
wherever I am now.

"All will be explained in due time. Hmm. Perhaps you do not
understand the, eh, magnitude of your situation.

The "forces" which act against you are that of an evil demi-
god, Neim. "They" are his minions and servants, the shadows
and all things of dark Serenia, which Neim named the Dark
Sovereigns. Unfortunately, they've already found you and now
you must confront them or your mission will fail."

"soff-er-ins?" I replied again, still feeling displaced.

The man sighed, and kneeled down to me, looking me in the eyes.
He mumbled to himself, "it's the only way we ever get anything
understood ... these mortals just can't handle the jump."

And with that he softly put his hands on my head. He had one over
each ear, holding the side of my head and he was looking deep into
my eyes, and then, without warning, I knew. I knew everything.
For atleast one split second, I had a complete realization of
everything everywhere. I knew of the nothing that existed before
the Makers, I knew of Ll?n, of the other Makers, and at last, I
knew of my mission. Clearly note that I still wasn't all too
thrilled about it, but I did know.

Then the man released his hands and looked away, giving my mind
a rest so that it wouldn't burst. I looked up at him and, at
that point, I had had a "moment of clarity" as some drunkards
call it. I knew that this man was no man at all, that he was
Geldrion, the Lord of the Makers, and now, if Serenia was to be
saved, I had to obey him.

Geldrion stood up again and said to me, "You now hold a part of
me inside you. Not only do you possess the knowledge I have
given you, but other gifts as well. Use these to help you in
your mission, and save you and those with you. These I give to
you in the name of Ll?n and all the Makers. May godspeed be with
you."

Once again, like it had before, reality began to blur and a
maddening howl came from every direction, until I was back in
the alley, surrounded by the Dark Sovereigns.

Damnitall! I put my face in my hands and hoped this was all
a dream; though I doubted it...

<+--| natural wonders :4: Next issue! |--+>

? ? -?-?-???-????-?????/\/?? Outro ??\/\?????-????-???-?-?-- ? ?

Whelp, there ya go. Another issue of SoS for the books. Oh yeah,
that reminds me, once we get to the fifth (5th) issue, SoS will
be releasing a 5-issue "compilation", which will include all of
the first five issues. We will attempt to do one of these for
every five issues so that those of you who have the tendancy to
miss an issue or two here and there will still be able to catch
up and not miss a thing.

*** Special Note ***
Included in the next issue we'll be starting a seperate part of
the Scrolls, which will be called "Dark Legends". As you may have
gathered by now, these current stories are from what is called
the "First Age", in which the creation of the Serenia reality
and its first encounters with godly evil are explained. The Dark
Legends side-stories are the explanation of what happens after
the First Age into the Second Age, and how Serenia has the
strange tendancy not to be all that serene. My friend and
part-time writer, LathSpell, will be doing a lot of the writing
for DL and some of the editing for SoS as well.

Why will this be seperate from the main Scrolls issue?
Well, it will be included in the archive, but it will be a
different file, but I think it will make SoS a lot more simpler
to keep the storyline if we keep the past (where Scrolls is now)
in the past, and the future (where Legends is) in the future. It's
just the natural order of things =)

What'll be so different between the First Age and the Second Age
storylines?
In the First Age storyline, there are 3 main stories: creation,
which is the "narration" of what is happening throughout the
other stories, Reyhan, which is one man's account of the
*** Special Note ***

btw - should you feel fit to get in contact with SoS,
(interested in writing, donating ascii, donations in general,
etc.) you can either email myself or LathSpell on any board you
might see us around on... (Including alderAAn or Avalon)

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