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index.html
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<html>
<head>
<title>Leïkos Kragne</title>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<style>
div {
width:80%;
text-align:justify;
background:#f3e8c0;
padding-left:20px;
padding-right:20px;
padding-bottom:10px;
margin-top:0px;
padding-top:0px;
}
div#header { padding-bottom:0px; padding-top:20px; }
h2 { margin-bottom:0px; padding-bottom:0px; margin-top:0px; }
p { padding-top:10px; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; }
p.inner { padding-top:3px; text-indent:30px; font-size:12pt }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="header">
<h2>
The Story of Leïkos Kragne
</h2>
</div>
<div id="body">
<p>
<p class="inner">
I was born in a small community of mushroom farmers in Mauitar, in the mountains East of the City of Brass.
We were one of the few remaining remnants of Bael Turath.
In the ancient past, Mauitar supplied much of the empire with mushrooms, but now the only real market is the dwarfs in the region.
My father thought he could make more money importing mushrooms into the City of Brass, so when I was 12, he took my mother and me to the City of Brass.
He formed a partnership with his brother Magelthos.
Magelthos took care of the dangerous business of transporting the mushrooms, while my father sold them in the city.
</p>
<p class="inner">
The plan hit a hitch almost immediately, when we heard from the Menigte.
They were the big players in organized crime in the City, and as my father quickly learned, you can't do business in the City of Brass without hearing from them.
They wanted a cut of his profits, and he eventually had to give in--in those days nobody could stand up to the Menigte.
It wasn't clear how they'd gotten so powerful, but most people figured they had friends in high places.
</p>
</p>
<p>
<p class="inner">
The City of Brass can be rough.
I lived in the apartment above my father's mushroom store in the dangerous Elysium district.
At my age, it was vital to have a gang to watch my back.
Tieflings aren't often welcomed, but my charisma and my skill in a fight landed me a place with the Long Knives.
</p>
<p class="inner">
There was one other Tiefling in the gang, Malakar D'Nossos, and we quickly became friends—in no small part because of the prejudice we both faced.
Malakar always hated the way Tieflings were treated.
I didn't like it either, of course, but it got to him in a way it never did to me.
He was always looking for ways to combat it.
Eventually I introduced him to Magelthos, who was in touch with the secrets of the ancient Tieflings—but that's another story.
</p>
</p>
<p>
<p class="inner">
Not all my time was spent with the gang.
My mother had taken very ill on the trip from Mauitar, and she never completely recovered.
She had her good days, but I spent many hours at her bedside.
We couldn't often afford a doctor, so I had to learn to care for her.
I learned a lot about healing on those days.
When I was 19, she died.
Some people might have blamed themselves in my position, but I didn't--I blamed the Menigte.
We could have afforded doctors and better care if they hadn't bled our wallets so badly.
They were the ones who killed my mother--and not long after, my father.
</p>
<p class="inner">
My father couldn't handle the death of his mate.
He stopped working almost entirely, and just sat around drinking mauikras, a type of fermented mushroom juice.
Before I realized how bad he was getting, he was into the Menigte for a few hundred gold pieces.
His depression deepened steadily, and he killed himself one month to the day after my mother died.
I travelled back to Mauitar with my uncle when he brought the next mushroom shipment.
But things would prove to be little better back home.
</p>
</p>
<p>
<p class="inner">
I'd been gone for many years, and things had changed in my absence.
The bucolic communitiy that I'd grown up in was gone.
In its place was a fiefdom that an Eladrin named Higgins had set up for himself.
He was not popular.
Mauitar was a Tiefling land, a proud holdout of Bael Turath, and we chafed under this Eladrin usurper.
</p>
<p class="inner">
Chafe though they might, though, there would be no peaceful resolution.
Higgins ruled with an iron fist, and early on he had cut down the few who had dared opposed him.
He'd cast a blanket of fear over Mauitar, and that fear was better protection than all the guards in the world.
He walked without escort through the lands he claimed as his own, choosing to fight any would-be assassins himself.
The few who summoned the courage to face him were quickly laid low—and the better they fought, the worse it went with them.
Higgins's armor was thick, but its greatest advantage was not its raw strength, but the foul enchantment that was laid on it.
Those who struck him were stricken with a terrible affliction that rotted their flesh from within.
</p>
<p class="inner">
I could not stand by while my people were persecuted.
I, who had weathered the hellhole of Elysium, did not fear this Eladrin dillettante.
I convinced the men of Mauitar to follow me and free our lands.
Their trust was not easily earned.
I had been away a long time, and I was still very young.
Many doubted my experience, or that I was truly committed to Mauitar.
I can be very persuasive, though, and finally they agreed to my plan.
</p>
</p>
<p>
<p class="inner">
Every afternoon, Higgins took a walk through the farmlands, making sure no untaxed crops were being grown in secret.
I challenged him as he strolled, calling him out and drawing his attention.
But these were not the open wheat-fields of the plains.
Mushrooms grow best in forests and caves, where there are many hiding places.
Before Higgins knew what was happening, we were on him.
The ancient rage of Bael Turath came upon us, and we tore him to pieces.
</p>
<p class="inner">
In that moment, with the Eladrin's blood still hot on my chest and arms, a terrible purpose awoke within me.
The fires of the ancient devils surged through my blood, and I saw my destiny laid out before me.
As I had destroyed Higgins, so would I bring the sword to the oppressors of the world.
I would gather around me the lovers of freedom, those with the power and will to defy the corrupt.
We would forge a better world—and woe betide any who stood in our way.
I took Higgins's armor and sword for my own, and left his dismembered body to fertilize the crops.
I set forth at once to gather my army.
</p>
</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>