''He didn't start killing the children until the end, you know. We'd let the tribes run at first. Kill off the warriors and let the women and children hide in the hills, he said, and the savages would be too busy fighting over who got to keep them to give us trouble. We'd broke them at the battle of the walls, but there were still so many of them. So many of them. Goblins and orcs and bugbears and the Nine Immortals know what else, crawling over every inch of the island. I suppose they thought we were just another new tribe at first. Someone who'd kill their warriors and take their women, ones who'd fight them as long as it was worth the trouble. They didn't realize that we didn't have anywhere else to run, that that Tide had surrounded the isles. He let them think us reasonable as long as we were able, bleed them of their warriors as long as we could, let the goblins fight each other to gobble up the shattered tribes until they'd bled themselves white with the killing. Then we started killing every greenskin we could find, from infants at their mother's teat to old cripples by the fire. We didn't take thralls and we didn't take hostages. They were savages and marauders when we found them, but I don't try to tell myself they deserved what we gave them. But for your life, my beloved child, I would do it all again and be glad."
—- A letter from Captain Wu Lao to his granddaughter, 37 years after Landing.
One hundred and twenty years ago, the world was overwhelmed by a crimson tide of horror. All across the world, the waves began turning to blood and the sea-mists came in red on the land. Monstrous creatures boiled out of the red fog and devoured all who could not flee. Even the mightiest heroes and most cunning arcanists proved helpless against the encroaching Tide, and nations were thrown into panic and wild confusion by the invading mists. Only a relative handful of refugees were able to escape the oncoming Tide, and only a pittance of those made landfall in the Sunset Isles. Here and here alone, it seemed, the Red Tide could draw no nearer. With a cage of red waves lapping a few score miles offshore, the refugees were resolved to take the land or die in the attempt.
Through savage warfare and the sacrifice of countless lives, the refugees were able to drive back the native goblinoids and stake out their farmlands and pastures on the Isles. They fought with the strength of desperation and the disorganized goblins could do little to resist their foreign sorceries and polished steel. But it has been a hundred and twenty years since that starveling fleet has landed, and men have since taken counsel of their own best advantages. They plot and scheme in the sunlit streets of Xian while in the western mountains, the goblins brood and remember what was taken.
Welcome to Red Tide MUX, an online fantasy game that employs the 4th edition of Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons game. Players are invited to take up the roles of daring adventurers and bold heroes, men and women capable of answering the threats of this tenuous age. With the cults of the Red Tide growing stronger by the season and the goblins marshaling their strength in the mountains, the city of Xian and the scattered refugee settlements are in dire need of those willing to fight on their behalf. Those that answer the call can expect to be richly rewarded in fame and wealth beyond imagining— or at the least, a very handsome epitaph.
The game is open for players at telnet location redtidemux.com 2626 |