The End of All Things- Second Edition
‘Look’ Sheldon said pointing to a large black mountain. It towered over the lands of ash and lava and rubble. A large tower sat at the summit of the tower that held a red light at the top between two pillars. ‘That must be Mount Vovlian Elijah.’
‘I see it Sheldon…but the Pendant seems to be growing heavy on me…it seems it wants me to use it’ Elijah said standing back up. Sheldon looked down the mountain side and the two stumbled down the path. They could see thousands among thousands of dai-orks sitting around.
‘How do we get by them Elijah?’ Sheldon asked. Elijah made no answer for he saw no way to reach Mount Vovlian. Elijah sat down and felt the Pendant that was concealed under his tunic. The boys have traveled many months and now they wish more now then ever that they were back home.
Sheldon looked up and saw the blackness of the clouds. No sunlight could breach those clouds. Elijah coughed over and over and grabbed his pouch and tried to get any drop of water out of it but none remained. Sheldon handed him his that was half full and Elijah took two mouthfuls of water.
‘We can’t stay here forever’ Sheldon said. Sheldon gazed back over to Mount Vovlian. Mount Vovlian was about four thousand five hundred feet high. The base rose about three thousand feet; its long grey slopes were rugged and broken and covered with ash and slag and burned stone. The central cone had sheer sides and was about half again as high - or one thousand five hundred feet tall. There was a jagged crater at the top from which smoke, fumes and lava issued. Beneath the mountain was a subterranean core of intense heat and undying fire.
A road led to Mount Vovlian from the Diablen Pass southwest of the mountain. It was a broad road paved with rubble and ash and it was repaired and maintained by orcs. Serrago's Road climbed the eastern slopes on a causeway and circled up the mountainside from south to north and back to the eastern side. There high on the central cone was a doorway facing the Dark Tower. Inside was Totlsanna Valon, the Chambers of Shadow, where a great fissure called the Gates to Valon led down to the vortex of Vovlian at the mountain's core.
‘Move out scum!’ a voice echoed across the land. ‘We march to Gandra! I want all soldiers to come! We received word that men from the south are approaching Gandra!’
The dai-orks and trolls and belves marched off towards the only opening of Darkice in the northeast. Sheldon smiled and said softly to Elijah, ‘the dai-orks are marching off Elijah. We can make it to Mount Vovlian and be rid of this fowl thing forever.’
‘I can’t move Sheldon…the darkness has engulfed me’ Elijah said. No matter what Sheldon did, Elijah did not move. It appeared that he was fading from this word and Elijah’s eyes widen in fear.