My Time with Lord Gordon, Volume I-III by Argentius Leone
(Wiki Editor's Note: This is a compilation of three separate books into one.)
My Time with Lord Gordon, Volume I by Argentius Leone
"Sit", he had told me when I first entered his domain. A fire roared from the hearth, the only light besides a few lit candles in the otherwise dark room. But even with its warmth, I shivered, the room chilly as a mild winter's day.
Even sitting, he was a giant of a man, if he was a man at all. Masked, there was no face to see, and I could not tell if he was human, Shadovar, or something far older. Some believed he was not even alive, but his chest heaved with breath, there was finery such as wine and drinks, and though a goblet lay for me, none lay for me.
I asked him what he was, who he was, and with a lift of his hand he dismissed my question. "Identity is purposeless. Actions, not name, create the legacy."
"But they called you Warden Gordon. Lord Gordon, now. Is that a first or last name?"
"It is a label. Where my heart was left behind." He answered. I pressed him to reveal more, but he waved his hand dismissively. "Ask me of my actions. They are where meaning lies."
I asked him a little of what I had gathered from stories I had heard in my travels. It was mad, I had to admit, to travel to the plane of Shadow to seek this Gordon for an interview, but as a historian, my call demanded the perserverance of both sides, however current conflicts may play out. When he was first known, it was as a servant to Lord Xavier, a wizard who coveted Thoramind's apprenticeship, believing himself the magical power of the future for Arelith. But as kind and well loved Thoramind was, he never took any apprentices. Except one.
"How did you two meet?" I asked as I shared what I knew with Gordon.
"We met as two individuals with a samed purpose. Seeking power in the darkest places. Only in the dark could my former master find the power to rival Thoramind."
"But he failed. Despite all that power, he was stopped." It was well told amongst the islanders. A brave Cordorian Guard with a passionate faith to the Red Knight stopped Xavier's freed beast and sealed it into an orb, delivering it back into its Arcane Tower's sanctum. I tried to see if Gordon would give a reaction as I reminded him of these details. But his mask gave nothing, a retelling that almost bored him.
"Did he truly, completely fail, scholar?" Gordon asked me. Distrust was stirred. The apprentice chosen instead of him suffered damage to their reputation that never truly fully recovered. Many lives were lost. And they lay the groundwork for other cults to take their message and carry it forward. The Void Cult, to which his new master, the Prince of Shadow, has given their aid to more than once. The dead, the supressed who are told that their power is "wrong", that to seek might above all else is "bad".
"Perhaps not completely." I admitted.
I paused. The room seemed to grow colder, and all I could only hear the quiet flame from the hearthfire.
"What do you intend now?"
He rose, and I was almost frightened by his full height. There were taller creatures, larger, that I have seen, but for his height to belong to one appearing to be a man unsettled me.
"I will show you."
'Argentius Leone'
My Time with Lord Gordon, Volume II, by Argentius Leone
I was suprised to find how much Gordon enjoyed a scholar by his side. He knew his history, especially local Arelithian history. He paid attention to everything, and his library was extensive. Religious texts, spell books, historical texts, texts about the world, texts about different cultures, books of forgotten arts, and books of the forbidden. I wanted to touch everything, but was afraid to feel a single book spine lest I earn Lord Gordon's ire.
There was no living company I found where I traveled. Shadows were everywhere, and I was startled as I stepped into a circle at his bidding when one stole my form.
Its face matched mine, what it was wearing matched mine, even the small dagger I kept around my belt was around its very belt, glistening with a slight silverl ight.
"You know these runes, scholar, yes?"
I did. The circle had three, one for Form, one for Obedience, and one for Mimic. I have known wizards making copies of themselves, but never a copy of a different target.
He then moved his hands around the shadow creature. Its face changed to that of a woman with vibrant red hair, and the youth of an adult. I recognized the Cordorian Guard emblems that have lasted for decades on and off in the city of Cordor, and a trinket of Red Knight around their neck.
"Is this the one who stopped your former master?"
"No. But another soul, the same ideology and the same membership at a different time. They will be made into the harbinger of what is to come."
"And what is to come?"
He didn't respond, but beckoned me to continue to follow him. We traveled through the realm of shade until he showed me a doorway. It felt uncomfortable to press my hand into it, and I found I could not go through.
"To pierce through shadow, one must be Shadow."
He enveloped me in blackness, and I found my hand could now go through the door, as if it was almost tugging me through. I stepped inside.
It was cold, even colder than where I had first met to speak with Gordon. Snow was falling heavily, and I tugged my arms around myself.
"This is the Peak. This is where it will begin when it is time."
An old man approached. They were garbed in monastic robes, without a hair on their head, and bowed to us silently. I noticed tattooed on their arms was a long serpent.
"A Snake Trinket will be delivered by a Cordorian. When you have it in your hands, come down from your mountain."
Bewildered, I looked between Gordon and the old man, who bowed once again at the instruction and seemed to step into the monastery.
"I do not understand, Lord Gordon. Is this a war you are starting?"
"Without blood." He stepped towards a serene waterfall at the back of the Monastery. The wind howled and the tree branches swayed, but compared to the realm of Shadow I was in, the life was comforting to the grey bleakness of before.
I saw he stepped to the edge of the waterfall, and then into nothing. I saw him fall, but when I looked down, there was nothing of him.
As a curious scholar would, I did the same, closing my eyes, expecting my foolishness to feel the hard rocks of below, but then, I only felt patchy grass, and once again, the chill of shadow. I was back in the bleaknes once more.
'Argentius Leone'
My Time with Lord Gordon, Volume III, by Argentius Leone
I was suprised by how much the world of the Shadow Realm could mimic the real world. Where I had followed Gordon we had gone from a lush mountain to a forest beneath said mountain, into the lake the waterfall had dipped in.
Once more, I found myself in the company of shades and shadows, and despite their presence, there was a certain loneliness about the place.
"The Shadows around you allowed you in this place." Gordon expalind to me. "Without them, you would have fallen to your death."
"What is this place" I asked, as he guided into a cavern that appeared as a tomb.
"Your answer."
I tried to study the coffins and the layout of the place, but Gordon's long movements left little time for idling lest I fall behind. But when crypt descended into cave I finally found something living in this place.
"Gnomes?" I asked. "Natives to this place?" But there was something about them. Not Spriggan, and very few Svirfneblin, they appeared as if their minds were not their own. Gnomes were weak miners if they were slaves, though perhaps small enough to reach in certain places.
The cavern eventually came to a dead end, with a single portal in a chasm. Gordon guided me through, and within I saw a strange workshop. More gnomes moving about, handling devices that I have never seen before, perhaps Illithid in origin, all surrounding this enormous orbs. Orbs of its likeness were scattered across the walls, and enormous Shadow Golems played overseer.
"Here, they create the device of eternal slumber. A tribute to the Night Serpent, so that it may be moved to provide a blessing to our success. They will slumber, and dream of a world of their choosing, and the Wyrm of Nightmares will feed, and be the guardian that prevents their ideal world from being broken."
Thus to Gordon, the perfect world would be forged.
"These Gnomes...they were taken here. Won't they learn they are missing? Won't they learn of this?"
"In time."
I looked behind myself, back to the exit. What if I warned them myself? Should I? I am a historian, a scholar. It is my duty to record it as they are...but even I knew this was mad.
"There is a price for the knowledge you have seen, and will see, Scholar."
"There is more, Lord Gordon?"
"Much more." He told me of a Svirfneblin Grotto, and how there lay many crafting experts that would suit his work perfectly.
"I am a Scholar, Lord Gordon. I cannot take sides."
"There are no sides, Scholar. Only debts."
The way he turned to me I saw there was no telling this man no, this man who had likely run through with his blades anyone who tried to defy him.
"Tell me, Lord Gordon. And I will aid."
It is I fear, likely the last thing I may do.
'Argentius Leone'