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      | Welcome       || Lore: The Siege of Nightfall City                                                ||  _   ___   _o |
      | Announcements ||                                                                                  || | | |...| |.| |
      | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ || The history of the early days of Nightfall is a history of wars and mas- sacres, || | | |.o.| |.| |
      | Web Client    || for in these days the orcs felt  an urgent desire to rule the world.  There were || '-' '---' '-' |
      | Clients       || uncountable numbers  of orcs and they  poured into the land  from everywhere. At ||              \|
      | Quickstart    || first nobody  was able  to stop  them. Their murdering  and looting  armies went ||               |
      | Wait, What?   || through the land and burned down every single village they ran upon on their way ||               |
      | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ || to Nightfall-City.                                                               ||               |
      | Races         ||                                                                                  ||              o|
      | Guilds        || They planned to  lay siege upon the  town until the defenders of  the capital of ||               |
      | Map           || the  world would  die of  starvation. The  orcs themselves  did not  suffer from ||               |
      | Lore          || hunger because they ate the multilated bodies of the humans they killed on their ||               |
      | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ || way to Nightfall-City.                                                           ||              \|
      | Who's online? ||                                                                                  ||               |
      | Finger        || King Deepthought and all the humans that survived the massacres and were able to ||               |
      | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ || make their  way into  the city  before the orcs  arrived at  its gates  and were ||               |
      | The Guide     || trapped in the capital  of the world. They were too few  to risk a fight against ||               |
      | Player Help   || the superior forces of the orcs on the plains outside the city.  Their situation ||               |
      | The Sky       || was desperate. They knew they would  be slaughtered if they would leave the town ||               |
      | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ || to face the armies on the open  fields, but if they would stay in Nightfall-City ||               |o
      | Imprint       || they'd sooner or later starve.                                                   ||              o|
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || Their  only hope was  that the  messenger that  left the  town through  a secret ||               |
      |               || passage had  not been caught  by the  orcs. They had  sent the messenger  to the ||               |
      |               || caves of  the dwarfs  to ask them  for help and  a day  later they had  sent yet ||               |
      |               || another one to the elves that lived  in a forest near Crescent Lake, but none of ||              o|
      |               || them ever arrived.                                                               ||               |
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || When the defenders  of the city sent out their messengers  they didn't know that ||              o|
      |               || the orcs  had split  their forces and  a second  army under general  Romulus had ||               |
      |               || marshed  down to Crescent  Lake while  the army  of king  Veltins stayed  on the ||               |
      |               || plains before Nightfall-City.                                                    ||               |o
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || The  first messenger  who had  been sent  to  the caves  of the  dwarfs had  bad ||               |o
      |               || luck. On his way he crossed a bridge under which a troll was living. The unlucky ||              o|
      |               || man had left  all his money at home,  because his wife needed to be  able to buy ||              o|
      |               || enough food for  her and the three children. The troll  became very un- friendly ||               |
      |               || when  the  messenger  could  not  pay  the  appropriate  sum  for  crossing  his ||               |
      |               || bridge.  The end  of all  this was  that the  poor man  ended up  in  the trolls ||               |
      |               || stomach.                                                                         ||               |o
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || The second messenger who had been send to the Crescent Lake ran into an am- bush ||               |
      |               || of  a troup of  general Romulus'  orcs and  was slaughtered.   A week  after the ||               |
      |               || second messenger left  Nightfall-City the defenders of the  capital of the world ||               |
      |               || came  together in  the  Hall of  Wizards to  confer  about the  future of  their ||               |
      |               || town. The conference lasted two days.  After the first day a negotiator was send ||               |
      |               || to the  tent of king Veltins  to offer him all  the treasures of the  city if he ||               |
      |               || would draw  back his forces  from the  city and would  never come back  to fight ||               |
      |               || against the humans.                                                              ||               |
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || A few hours  later a messenger of the  orcs arrived at one of  the cities gates, ||               |o
      |               || dropped a  package and went back  to his camp.  The package was brought  to king ||               |
      |               || Deepthought  who opend  it. A  moaning went  through the  hall when  the present ||               |
      |               || people saw what the parcel contained. Lying inside the ugly package was the head ||               |
      |               || of the ne- gotiator and a piece  of dried skin. Deepthought took the skin out of ||               |
      |               || the package. Written on it was only a single word: NEVER!                        ||               |
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || After the failed  attempt with the negotiator the mood  of the defenders reached ||               |
      |               || its deepest point.  Some wanted to kill their wives and  children and bury them, ||               |
      |               || for they didn't want them to be  raped or devoured by the orcs. Nobody knew what ||               |
      |               || to do. The only chance they had was to abandon the city, but they coudn't figure ||               |
      |               || out how to leave it without being seen by the orcs. While the other wizards kept ||               |
      |               || on  discussing,  the  master-mage  Tares  left  the  room  having  a  thoughtful ||               |
      |               || expression on  his face. He went  to his chamber and  took a very  old and dusty ||              \|
      |               || book from a shelf. He leafed through it for a few hours and then suddenly jumped ||               |
      |               || up from the chair he was sitting on.                                             ||               |o
      |               ||                                                                                  ||              o|
      |               || Very excited he  ran out of his chamber  to seek Ploi, the master  of the mage's ||               |
      |               || guild.  He found  Ploi in  the  top room  of the  tower  of mages  sitting in  a ||               |o
      |               || rocking-chair  and  smoking  a  pipe.  Ploi looked  surprised  when  the  usualy ||              o|
      |               || deliberate master-mage rushed into his  chamber, but he soon realized that Tares ||               |
      |               || had  good reason  for  being  so excited,  because  the mage  had  found a  long ||               |
      |               || forgotten spell which could be the key to the survival of all the inhabitants of ||               |o
      |               || Nightfall-City. The two wizards confered about  that spell for lots of hours and ||               |
      |               || then went to their beds.                                                         ||               |
      |               ||                                                                                  ||              \|
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || Early in the  morning king Deepthought was awoke up by  a messenger bringing the ||               |/
      |               || terrible news that the  orcs had stormed the walls of the  city and were pouring ||               |
      |               || into the streets of the capital of the world. Deepthought ordered immediately to ||               |/
      |               || bring  all the women  and children  into the  cellars of  the townhall.  All men ||               |
      |               || should arm themselves and gather in the townhall to face the imminent danger. He ||               |
      |               || hoped  that  there was  enough  room  for all  of  them  in  that building.  The ||               |
      |               || inhabitants of  Nightfall-City followed  his orders and  managed to bar  all the ||               |
      |               || doors and windows of the townhall before the orcs arrived.                       ||               |o
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || Thousands of people  were crammed in the building, waiting for  the end of their ||               |o
      |               || lifes, when Ploi and Tares arrived in a puff of smoke. Tares was holding a giant ||              o|
      |               || crystal  in his  hands. Ploi  raised his  hands and  signaled the  crowds  to be ||               |
      |               || quiet. The  excited voices  became quiet immediately  and Tares began  to speak: ||               |
      |               || 'Listen to me, friends! Ploi and I have  found a way to rescue all of us.' Great ||               |
      |               || jubilation filled  the hall and Tares  had to wait  for a while before  he could ||               |
      |               || continue. 'With a little help of this  magical crystal we will be able to open a ||               |
      |               || dimension door  to the realm of the  halflings. All of you  should leave through ||               |o
      |               || that door as fast as possible, but the women and children should be the first to ||               |o
      |               || leave this building, for it is possible  that the orcs will force their way into ||               |
      |               || the townhall before everybody can leave it.  So would you please go and get your ||               |
      |               || families out of the cellars while Ploi and I prepare our spell?'                 ||              \|
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || Tares  put  the  crystal on  a  pedestal  and  Ploi  started to  mutter  strange ||               |
      |               || words. When the  first children entered the room a  blue glimmering light filled ||               |
      |               || the  air in  front of  the two  mages.  'Quick,  go through  the  light!'  Tares ||              o|
      |               || commanded. The children  went through the light and were  suddenly gone. It took ||               |
      |               || over three  hours before all the  children and women left  through the dimension ||               |o
      |               || door. Meanwhile the orcs tried to  invade the building. Some of the best knights ||               |
      |               || of Nightfall-City  went to the doors and  windows to guard them  and prevent the ||               |
      |               || orcs from entering. Two thirds of the men had left the building with the help of ||               |
      |               || the two  master-mages when the  first orcs managed  to break through a  wall and ||               |o
      |               || fight their  way through the  defen- ders. King  Veltins was among them  and his ||               |o
      |               || eyes glowed with triumph when he saw king Deepthought.                           ||               |
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || Deepthought wanted  to rush on the hated  enemy, but Sir Marvin  pushed him into ||               |o
      |               || the glimmering light  of the dimension door.  Sir Marvin was  one of the bravest ||               |
      |               || knights of the world. A dozen of  the best fighters joined him, when he attacked ||               |
      |               || the  orcs. 'Leave  through the  dimension door!'  he commanded  the rest  of the ||               |
      |               || men.  'We will  deal  with  that brood!'  Sir  Marvin and  his  men fought  like ||               |
      |               || berserkers until the last men had  left through the dimension door. The floor of ||               |
      |               || the hall was covered with the multilated  bodies of orcs. Half of the humans had ||               |
      |               || died  and  the  others were  studded  with  wounds  when  Marvin asked  the  two ||               |
      |               || master-mages to leave.  'Only  one of us can leave. There has  to be one to keep ||               |
      |               || the door open', Tares replied 'and I  won't go. I think Ploi should be the one.' ||               |
      |               || 'Never!' answered  Ploi. 'I'll stay here with  you and teach those  orcs to fear ||               |
      |               || the magic of the mages!'                                                         ||               |
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || And so they closed the magic gate  and fought against the orcs together with Sir ||               |
      |               || Marvin  and his men.  Blue lightnings  burned the  orcs to  ashes and  clouds of ||               |
      |               || poisonous gas sank  upon their heads. Some hundred orcs died  before one of them ||               |
      |               || managed to shoot an  arrow into Ploi's heart. Ploi sank to  the ground and Tares ||               |
      |               || kneeled down beside his old friend. 'The orcs will pay for this!'  he vowed with ||               |
      |               || tears of anger in his eyes.                                                      ||              o|
      |               ||                                                                                  ||               |
      |               || But while the mage was sitting next  to his dear friend, king Veltins managed to ||               |
      |               || sneak  behind him  and  ram  his spear  into  Tares' back.  Sir  Marvin and  the ||               |
      |               || remaining defenders  fell soon after, but  their deaths were not  in vain.  They ||               |
      |               || rescued many lives and hundereds of songs about those brave men were sung in the ||               |
      |               || years after the war. The names of Tares, Ploi and Marvin will never be forgotten ||               | o
      |               || in Nightfall.                                                                    ||               |/
      |               ||                                                                                  ||         o    s|
      |               || *   The writer of this  story, the Vice Lord of the trolls,  is very angry about ||     o  /    /x|
      |               ||     that troll which hurt the reputation  of all trolls. A troll should at least ||      \/ __o/xs|
      |               ||     be civilized enough not to eat humans!  We won't even speak of the fact that ||       \/   \xx|
      |               ||     that troll used a rubberdoll as a substitute for a wife.                     ||        \    \s|
      |               ||                                                                                  ||         \   /x|
      |               || **  It is not known who wrote these words. It couldn't have been written by king ||        nmsxxsx|    
      |               ||     Veltins, because it is well known that Veltins is illiterate.                ||       xsxxxmxs|      .
      |               ||                                                                                  ||      sxmxxxxmx|     -_|=
      +---------------++----------------------------------------------------------------------------------++----nmsmmsmmmxmS  ./_|=|_-_
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