The War Hound and the World's Pain

The forest flourished, a lush and spreading refuge from the Wars, coolly green and welcoming. Beyond its borders the land burned flame red, blood red, ghastly black. Men and women, hacked to death, choked the paths and streams as the Armies of Religion clashed and slaughtered. Carrion-hung gibbets loomed starkly through the smoke and all the land was desolate. The forest was a refuge. Yet silent, utterly silent and without life, as through it wearily rode the War Hound, Graf Ulrich von Bek. To come suddenly on a castle. Many-turreted and fair, it rose up, honey-gold in the sunlight. Yet silent as still as the forest.And in the castle he found favour of the chatelaine, the Lady Sabrina, whose Master was Lucifer, Prince of Darkness. And was challenged to set out upon a quest that only the Damned could undertake.