The year is 8000 on the great civilization calendar. A group of people are out seeking clues to defeat Zerrieth, the God of Dragons, and have heard about a dragon that supposedly resides in the old Tzertia mountains. Amara the Leviathan Huntress, Zreyli the Traveler, Sympathia Apocaly and Erdan of the Draconic Monestary are staying the night in a local inn in the village of Tzertia, set at the foot of the mountain region. This is the group known worldwide as the Dragonslayers, the first people in recorded history to have ever slain an Ancient Dragon.
The Dragonslayers woke up early that morning, and said goodbye to Karrath Tzertia, the owner of the inn who was kind enough to offer them free food and lodging. He waved them goodbye as they left the village and began to climb the mountains. After a while they made their way into a vast valley near the top of the mountains. Amara suddenly spotted enormous tracks in the dirt, eerily resembling that of a dragons. After following the tracks for a long time, they encounter a circle in the valleys trees, plant growth and dirt, all except for moss. As they enter the circle hundreds of runes begin glowing blue, black, green, red and white, all the colors of Zerrieth. The ground began to crumble as a giant draconic force emerged from the circle. The Dragonslayers realized they had not been tracking a normal dragon, but Zerrieth herself.
Amara released the forces of the hunt, Zreyli enveloped himself in his gods power, Sympathia conjured demons of the apocalypse and Erdan called forth his own dragons will. Then everything went dark. They could not move. They began clawing against what felt like dirt and rock until they saw light. They looked around and saw each other in unmarked graves in the middle of a destroyed mountain covered by moss and growth. They stood up without any of their gear, and felt they lacked power. They look forwards and see a masked woman standing in front of them.
The woman laughs as she sees them rising from the ground.
"Finally, you've awoken" she says, before dropping 4 masks onto the ground, one in front of each.
"They each lack the souls to fuel their powers".
She looks to Sympathia "Mark of Fire".
Then she turns to Zreyli "Mark of Darkness".
"Mark of Storms" She says while looking at Erdan.
She leans down to Amara "And finally, the Mark of Frost". She then whispers into Amara's ear "I've missed you".
The dragonslayers look to the ground at their masks, and back up towards the woman. To their surprise, she had vanished in the split second they looked away.
Amara stands, and noticing her belongings are missing, turns to face the stranger. Realizing she had disappeared, she begins rooting around the area for any of their belongings or signs of them.
"What...who..." Sympathia slowly sits up, grunting "Who was that?"
"Ah my head hurts, what in the world" Erdan looks around confused.
Zreyli rubs his eyes "Can we just sleep for another five minutes?"
"What in the world just happened. Why is everything so overgrown?" Erdan asks in confusion.
"Did a pack of druids match through when we were napping?" Sympathia replies
Sympathia looks down and realizes she's standing in dirty rags.
"...druids and thieves apparently."
"This is just great one minute we fighting for our lives. The next this" Erdan gestures to all their missing gear and the overgrown field. "Our luck seems not to be in out favor"
They all begin descending from the mountain, picking up some cheap crystals and sticks for improvised weapons and spell casting on the way. "We have a long trek ahead of us, we should head back to the village, ask if they've seen these dishonorable druids. They must have hidden their tracks using woodland magics" Amara says.
"Agreed." Sympathia says and starts to assist Amara with getting supplies together. They make their way down to the village, but to their surprise they can only see a single mansion in the middle of a forest. "What...happened here...?" Sympathia asks. "I think more than just a band of druids happened here?" Erdan responds.
"There's not even soot...we didn't fail, did we?" Sympathia begins to express concern. "We wouldn't be here if we didn't. I also feel like the world wouldn't be green if we lost" Erdan replies. responds. Amara looks at the rest of the group. "Plants like this don't grow overnight, even with an army of druids. Something else has happened here."
Zreyli walks behind everyone, looking around and thinking. Everyone had lost their bestowed artifacts, treasures crafted and gifted to them by gods. He could still feel a faint connection to the God of the Sun, his master.
Sympathia starts walking up to the mansion, slipping her crystal behind her palm. She knocks on the front door. "Excuse me?" she says, with no response. As she turns around to leave, the door opens. An old man stands in the doorway, who looks familiar. His eyes are grey and white, and after a few seconds they realize he is blind. "Hello?" he says, while looking directly at the strangers on his doorstep, as if he can clearly detect them all. "Do you know what happened to the village that used to be here?" Sympathia asks the old man. "Village? There hasn't been a village here for a very very long time" he responds. Sympathia stands back a little. "Excuse me? There was a village here just a few days ago."
"A few days ago? You must be blinder than me. Come inside into the warmth though, its going to snow later" He leads the way inside, and points to his couch as he sits in his chair. Everything inside this house looks to be carved by a master woodcarver. "If you would like to know about villages in the area you could look in my library, my mother left me some of those books before she passed. Not that I could read them."
Sympathia moves inside, stepping through and keeping careful steps around "That would be helpful, thank you. Who was your mother?" she asks. "Avelin Tzertia" he responds.
"Tzertia? As in the name of these mountains?" Erdan chimes in. Sympathia looks to the others, her eyes wide as she realizes the possible connection.
The old man looks at them. "Hah, mountains? Those hills haven't been much since the meteors hit" Erdan looks to the others in confusion. "Meteors?"
"Legend says that the meteors were conjured by a wizard, and that the mountains melted by the breath of a hundred dragons" the old man sighs. "Bunch'a horseshit if you ask me, they're just hills."
"The part about melted by a hundred dragons sounds about right" Erdan says. He bursts out in laughter "You would've gotten along well with my mother, ahaha!" he wipes a tear from laughing. "The library is in the west part of the house, through that hallway" he says while pointing to a hallway towards the back of the mansions entrance. Erdan looks to the rest of the group. "I'm gonna take a look. Why don't you guys have a chat with our nice host?" He gets up and walk to the library. As he goes down the hallway, he can see paintings, centuries apart in age of various people. He opens the door at the end of the hallway and sees a room filled with hundreds of books, and a fireplace with a large oil painting hanging over it. The painting is of Karrath Tzertia, the kind man they had met just a day earlier, but it looks thousands of years old.
Erdan's eyes widen. "What is going on here?"
The old man shouts from the living room "Is there an issue?"
"Nothing" Erdan responds. "Sympathia. Come to the library take a look at this". She stands up "One moment, sir." She follows out to the library at the sound of Erdan calling until she sees the final painting of Karrath Tzertia. "What..." She stares at the painting, her mouth open "Erdan, what is going on...?"
"That's why I called you. These painting are extremely old. So we clearly weren't here "yesterday". I think we were out for a lot longer"
Erdan notices a book on the table in the library. It reads out "The Legacy of Tzertia". He walks over to the book, which seems to be an old picture book written for children. "How cute" he says while flipping through the pages. His expression suddenly changes as he reads the contents. The picture book speaks of the 4 legendary dragonslayers, who came by the village one day and stayed with the local innkeeper. The tale contained many exaggerations, far removed retellings of history. Its as if the story had been retold hundreds of times before it was written.
The old man enters the library "Is everything well? You can stay the night so you wont have to be outside when the snowstorm hits".
Erdan looks at the old man. "How can we be in a book if we were just here. This does not make any sense. I think we'll take you up on your offer, and we are going to have many questions tonight."
"Scholars are we? Fascinating. But I am old and tired, I can answer your questions tomorrow morning at breakfast."
"This place used to be an inn, there are bedrooms in the hallway" He heads upstairs to the master bedroom. Zreyli sighs and enters one of the bedrooms before dropping down onto his bed. Sympathia rubs her temples a little, frowning as she stares at the paintings "What magic did this to us..." She heads to a bedroom, and settles down for the night, whispering prayers to the the God of Death before she tries to sleep.
Throughout the entire night, none of the dragonslayers manage to fall asleep. They each lay in their beds staring at the ceiling as the night passes over. Lost in time, and remembered as a Tale of Old.