\--==Official Submission==-- FROM: General Debinani Rahl RE: Chapter One - Of New Beginnings The Origins of The Black Rose Society - Last Free Company of Sosaria. My thanks to Glenn Cook for the inspiration. Piecing together historical references was never my strong suit; and piecing together where we came from would probably give Old Humboldt headaches the likes of which The Avatar has never seen. Unfortunately, it's my duty to commit to manuscript what I could discover of the forming of our little Society, so here I go. Thus begins The Book of Rahl. I was quite young when the war started in Cove. We had known the Horde was coming for weeks, and the local Imperial Magistrate had hired The Black Rose Society, totaling over three thousand in number to hold the beachhead against the onslaught of the Orcs. Everyone was in the streets when they marched in from Vesper, perfect ranks and files of gritty soldiers marching through the city and setting up camp beyond the shield wall. I instantly succumbed to the sheer awe that young boys are infected with when watching an army march by. I longed adventure, and tales of The Society had spread far and wide. No one really knew where they came from, it was as if they had always been there, taking contracts from the nobility to perform one soldiering task or another. They had a reputation for being the meanest, most cunning standing army in all of Britannia, and were widely sought for many reasons both virtuous and not. Every one of em marched through town with a gleam in their eye, itching for a fight that they knew they couldn't lose. Perhaps even itching for a fight they could put their hearts into. Word had it that their last job was for a local lord in Vesper to stop the riots caused by the Prophets of The Avatar. Word of the slaughter was still coming in long after the Society's departure. I don't imagine any soldier much enjoys killing peasants. Pointedly against my family's wishes I joined up, proved I was handy with a sword and even a little petty magic, and was placed in an infantry unit under the command of Bruenor... sorry...Sergeant Bruenor of Stormstone Sound...couldn't forget the last part. I didn't know where Stormstone Sound was, and in fact, no one in the far-traveled company had ever heard of the place, but Sarge insisted he was from there and it was a very pleasant place, and by the gods he wasn't going to let us forget it. He and Madoc and a few of the Society's tame wizards would sit around a barrel and play some sort of card game for hours on end, complaining quietly about this contract or that, and laughing heartily at the thought of sheathing their blades in chaos instead of man-flesh. I gathered that The Captain had taken the Cove contract as a morale-booster for his men. Vesper had taken a lot out of all of them. My second day The Captain and the Lieutenant took all of us young-ones aside and read from the earliest of The Society's Annals about where we came from. He said, "The Book of Rothain is the earliest of the annals still in the possession of the Society, and in chapter eighteen, he outlines what he knows about our origins. He said that in The Age of Darkness, before The Shattering, the Free Companies of Sosaria were sent abroad for a purpose yet unknown. None of the other companies have been heard from since that time. We stick to our contracts, as we have done for two thousand years. We defeat our enemies with Cunning and poise, not by brute force. The Society is family, most of us have been here all our lives. And the only way out is feet-first." The next day there was a bustle in the camp. It seemed British himself wanted to hire The Society on and station us near Yew to stop yet another growing Orc threat. Everyone was excited, word was that the men in British's service were paid well and ate well, even on the road. We finished the palisade outside of Cove and made ready to wipe up the Orcs and move out. We were looking out to sea, their ships were out there, and everyone knew it. Which is why no one was prepared when the Horde emerged from the mountain. They came in droves, hammering against our undefended rear and flanks, mercilessly pushing The Society, to a man, to the coast. We fought hard. I can't remember very much of the battle, it was all a blur. The screams of dying men and the harsh war-cries of the Orcs mixing with the smell of blood and smoke from the fires of the town of Cove in flames. At one point I took an arrow in the shoulder and went down. I woke to a feeble shaking. I opened my eyes to see The Captain, riddled with arrows and bleeding profusely, lying beside me, shaking my shoulder. "We're all that's left," he said, "The Society is broken." He gestured to his tent, containing all the remaining Annals, burning merrily amongst the carnage. The sound of the Orcs pillaging Cove rang out over the mountain. "Get out of here...rebuild...write your Book as Captain of The Society...and return it to The Libraries in Tablenhelm..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of roots and moss, and opened a gate. "Go..." And then he died. I went. I dropped to the ground on the other side of the gate beaten and bleeding, practically into the arms of a soldier. I looked around and found myself in Cove, in the fort that we had just completed. There were no signs of battle, and the town seemed to be thriving. "Where am I?" I said weekly, as the soldier lowered me to the ground and began the slow process of extracting the arrow from my shoulder. "You're on Cove, son." "NO...where am I?" I replied. The man looked at me for a long, hard moment. "Well, I don't know where you came from or how you got here, but our Mystics call this place Catskills," he chuckled quietly as he worked, " If you're one to believe all that rot about Sosaria and the Age of Darkness." I pulled myself to my feet and accepted his aid and we started to hobble our way into town. "So what's your name?" he asked. "Rahl...Debinani Rahl. Yours?" "Cethwyn Rhys, Esquire, Soldier for Hire, " he said with practiced exuberance. "Want a job?" "What kind of job?" he replied. "You ever heard of The Black Rose Society?" I asked. "Nope." I smiled, "You will, Master Rhys...Everybody will." And thus The Society began anew. I have no ambition to return the Society to it's former glory, just to find the truth of where we came from and how to get back to fulfill a promise to my dead predecessor. The recent death of Sage Humboldt threw a wrench in my plans however, for he was secretly aiding my in my research to find Tablenhelm. In the mean time, The Society, I've managed to assemble a small band of outcasts and renegades, dedicated to The Society's cause. They're a good bunch, but like the old Society they're itching for the Good Fight. So here I am, finishing the first chapter of The Book of Rahl, looking out my window across the snowy waste in which we train. It's time The Society found a contract...found a purpose. It's time for The Black Rose Society to make everyone sit up and take notice as we announce to the world in a clear, resounding voice that the last Free Company of Sosaria is in town and ready to take on the World.