Conclave of Shadows 03: Exile's Return

The story of the exiled Duke and his quest to return home after being transported to the other side of the world by a magician ally of Talwin Hawkins. During his exile, he contemplates all the choices he had made as the Duke, and regrets the pain he had caused. Along his journey, he encounters four men carrying an artifact of dark power. As soon as he sees it, he is caught in its power and led by a will not his own along with his new companions to where the artifact, a set of black armor, wished. They take it to the temple of the Gods, and are directed to take it to the Gods themselves upon the highest mountains of the world. As they travel, the former Duke Kaspar's companions are killed off one at a time, until he is alone in carrying the armor to the Gods. There he is shown visions of great evil that await if the armor is not sent back to the world from which it came. To do so, Kaspar is instructed to find his old enemy, Talwin Hawkins, and contact the order he works for, the Conclave of Shadows. Kaspar takes the advice and sails the armor back to his home and does as he is bid, only to find that the Conclave know of no means to destroy the armor. Hoping to gain more information, the head of the Conclave, Pug, transports them to the elf lands of Elvandar where they seek the wisdom of the elves. Even the elves prove to be of no help, and just as the sorcerer Pug and Kaspar are to return, a reincarnated Leso Varen attacks the elven land with his hordes of undead. After saving the elf lands, they return only to find that Pug's stronghold had been breached by none other than Leso Varen himself. After a battle in which Varen is killed again, Pug and his son are able to send the armor to an Assembly of the most powerful magicians in their plane. As the story concludes, Pug and an ally of his, Nakor, travel to where the armor was first uncovered, only to find that thousands more like it were hidden only under the surface.
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