Upon a dune you see a small group of people headed towards some ruins in the distance. Arriving at the town, charred sand and rubble stands before them as they cautiously walk through the ruins. They arrive at what used to be a large and magnificent cathedral, and enter through the blown out door. There before them lies a large hallway filled with splintered and burned pews and some granite columns that have broken off and lie in their path. They climb over the pillars and arrive at a toppled statue of a large stone lizard with a sacrificial knife in its back, stained red from the dried blood. Statues of emaciated people lay crushed underneath the fallen state. A man with glowing red eyes orders his minions to take vials, and collect what little drops of blood they can find. They manage to fill up 3 small vials with the blood, and the man with the glowing eyes snatches them and looks at them intensely. “Still in there, are you?” he says as he walks away.
Suddenly the vision jumps forward, and you see a converging of two medium sized armies. They converge on an old stone altar near the border of the forest of the damned with a sigil engraved onto it. Hundreds of undead pace around in the forest as if disturbed from their slumber, and a separate undead army exits the Forest and marches toward the sigil. A group of cultists await them at the sigil, waiting for their opportunity to pounce. The two groups banter and chide one another, but do not clash. Neither wishes to disturb the other, but both are unyielding in their resolve. Footsteps off in the distance distract the two armies, and four score of elves march toward the two armies. Confusion sets in and a large clash of the three armies begins. As the elves charge, A large hound pounces from behind them and slashes two of the cultists into pieces with one swing. Spells fly about and swords clash as the armies collide, putting the talon in great danger.
Meanwhile a group of adventurers, sneaking around watching this take place, watch the ongoing scene as two metamorphosed adventurers head toward the talon. They approach two men, one cloaked man with a plethora of magical tattoos burned onto his skin, and another cursed looking man with a giant greatsword and a seemingly quick temper. Looking at Raven, the cloaked man stabs the cursed man in the gut, and quickly teleports with the Talon of Souls and Raven, while also teleporting Sapphire back to Fallenstar.
Raven, in the blink of an eye, is inside a small stone chamber in pitch black darkness. The tattooed man utters something and one of his tattoos shoots out a wisp of light that hovers above his head, which bathes the small room in a warm white light. In the back end of the small sandstone room is a pool of crimson blood. He asks her to take a few vials of it, and to make sure to hold on to them, for he “is going to need them”. After handing them to her, he quickly teleports away again with her by his side. Mountains tower over them as they stand at the edge of a cave inside one of the peaks of said mountains. A dark pool of liquid sits there, and he strips down almost fully nude and steps into the pool of water. His tan skin is riddled with tattoos of various sizes, save for his chest. Asking her to give him the talon and then make him drink the vials of blood after, she hesitates. “But I saved your life, you owe me just this one favor, and I will return you to your home”. After a long pause, she agrees. She opens the talon and hands it to him, and he begins to scream in agony. The talon of souls glows a deep red aura and the pool begins to whirlpool around him as magic seems to sear a new tattoo into his chest. A very large insignia of demonic skull imprints into his chest, larger than any other tattoo on him, and he lays there, limp in the pool. Raven rushes over and forces the vial of liquid down his throat, and the glowing red liquid revives the man after minutes of flowing through his body. He then quickly shoves the talon in her hand, says “You know where to bring this” and teleports her back to Fallen Star.