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The Oracle
UP: Britannia
The Oracle stirred uncomfortably in her sleep. Her eyes opened slowly
- puzzled and concerned. Sitting up, she closed her eyes again, though
not in sleep this time. She allowed her mind to go blank. Her thoughts
drifted aimlessly, seeking what guidance they could find outside of the
Oracle herself. And with that, the Oracle began to see something�
The wind howled as it traveled over the landscape of Sosaria, pushing through
trees and kicking up dirt as it roams the southern woods near Trinsic. A
strong warrior would bend his back into this wind. Birds of flight tucked
their wings in close to their body and refused to move or even attempt flight.
Yet, the wind ceased beyond a decaying fence. The fence marked a small plot
of land that remain untouched by the fierce wind as though the wind knew
something that others did not. Someone passing by might even remark that
the area looked calm. They would be wrong.
A graveyard forgotten by all but time lay idly inside the broken and unstable
fence. Bones littered the ground here and there - a silent message from
those who had sought riches from the long dead inhabitants of the graves�
or perhaps a warning for those who would come next. Broken headstones poked
through the undergrowth, and many displayed the deadly weavings of spiders
waiting for their next victims. Yet amidst the decay and forgotten dead
stood three headstones, older than all the rest but untouched by either
time or man. Three brothers rested in these graves.
Born to a peasant woman, these three magically gifted brothers began their
life in Sosaria. Their happiness was short lived as they watched their mother
die at the hands of town folk who believed her an evil witch. Fearing for
their lives the three brothers fled into the mountains where they lives
their lives in poverty and anger. But they were also waiting. As they grew
in age their hatred for the people of the little town of their birth grew
into a hatred for all of Britannia. Sanity fled them, never to return, and
the three brother found new strength in both their loathing of other people
and in their consuming madness. Powers they had received from their mother
at birth awoke at last.
One brother�s heart turned as Cold as Ice; one brother�s rage became a Burning
fire; and the last brother�s soul radiated a Deadly Poison. These gifts
given to them by their mother would aid them in their revenge upon Britannia.
The Brothers began by destroying the town of their birth, though in truth
it no longer held a place in their memory. It had simply been the first
to be in their path. Other smaller villages and towns followed, as the three
left a trail of blood and destruction leading toward Trinsic.
When the three brothers finally reached Trinsic, a force of paladins along
with the strongest of mages and warriors awaited them. The strongest and
bravest of Trinsic battled the brothers, as well as the foul creatures who
had joined with the three, for several weeks before the Brothers finally
fell. Even after their deaths the power within the three ebbed forth and
harmed anyone within a short distance of the bodies. Realizing that these
were no normal men, the paladins of Trinsic had the three brothers taken
to a small gravesite and buried in magically sealed tombs to keep their
powers from harming another soul.
The graves sat silent and untouched for ages, the magical seals in place.
Then came the day in which the Followers of Armageddon attempted to cast
the Armageddon Spell. The force of the resulting earthquakes cracked the
magic seals and allowed the power of the brothers to once again flow.
The stillness and silence of the small graveyard was broken by strange sounds.
The earth moved and bones creaked. The brothers had been waiting for this
day, the coming of the Day of the Dead. For it is this day that the dead
rise to greet the living with their terrifying grasp.
The Oracle is jarred from her meditative state and the horrific vision.
"The brothers will attack Britannia again as they did in the past. I must
warn the cities of my vision. I must warn them of the coming of the Day
of the Dead."
From the Town Cryer - The Journal of Ultima Online,
Saturday,
October 30th, 2000
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