Eric Boyd

She is the pride of your village, a young woman gifted with beauty, grace, and a gentle spirit. Now she’s gone – cruelly taken by the minions of the Queen of Thorns to their mistresses’ dungeon. There she will stay chained until the new moon comes, and with it the dark ritual to preserve the Queen’s haughty beauty at the expense of a young maid’s lifeblood. And it is all your fault . . .

You and your companions would not heed the elders’€™ warnings. You would not accept the dark fate intended for her, you could not live under the shadow of your guilt if you did nothing. Instead, you took up what weapons and other items you have and struck out toward the bastion of the Queen of Thorns.

The hulking shape of the Queen’s fortress is on the horizon. You look to your impromptu company and take heart knowing you will not be going into that damned place alone.

Meanwhile, she lies in the Queen’s dungeon, imprisoned by twisted chains of thorns that tear at her flesh. She weeps, bereft of everything except a faint glimmer of hope.

As the 193s begin, the Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries and the Enlightenment of Mankind is the foremost institution of learning and research in the world. You are esteemed members of the Committee, each a pulp hero of the first order, and you are all newly returned from an expedition to discover an ancient city and the lost secrets hidden there. Now you sit before the assembled Committee to give a full report of your expedition. Each of you harbors the same desire in your heart–to be recognized as the first among equals and to garner the most acclaim for your incomparable contributions to the expedition’s success.

Everyday someone in your city, your town, is on the edge. You can’t always tell by looking them over, but if you look into their eyes, their souls, you can see that something inside them is in danger of breaking. Pain is a part of the human condition; no one can avoid it. But sometimes the Pain becomes overwhelming, it consumes everything that is good, blots out the sun, and threatens to swallow your entire life. Sometimes this overwhelming Pain is fresh and fiery like a fever or an open wound, other times it’s an old festering sore that is slick with the pus of curdled memories. It doesn?t matter, one day will come when the Pain is brought to a head. On that day, your ability to Fight, to stand strong in the face of your Pain, determines whether you live or die. Of course, the physical death may not come quickly, but the spiritual one will be immediate ? there will be no more Fight in you, you will be only an empty shell drowned in Pain. A Pain that will only be extinguished in death.

Today might seem like any other day, but today is the day you face your Pain. Maybe it’s a choice you made, or maybe it’s a series of rude coincidences ? either way, today you Fight or give in, break down or break through. A part of you already knows which way it’s gonna turn out; it?s been written in your eyes for a long, long time.