Centuries ago, an boy by the name of Zhixin was born in what is now the Han empire. Through means unknown, Zhixin ended up in the far West, where he lived his early years. He took on (or was given) the western name Nobiz, and soon became a great mage. As he grew older, he returned to our fair valleys to learn of his ancestry. He embraced the culture of your ancestors and studied deeply the philosophies of our land. Similarly, local scholars learned much from Nobiz of Western thought and philosophy.

One of the concepts Nobiz brought with him was that the world is built from four elements: Air, Water, Fire, Earth. In fact, Nobiz had spent much of his existance studying the elements. He believed that if all four could be brought together into a single object, that object would contain great power. But, despite his brilliance and perseverance, he was unable to piece together the puzzle.

Many were swayed by his teachings of the four elements until a young seamstress, by the name of Mun-Hee, engaged the mage in what began as a casual debate. She had heard the teachings of Nobiz, but found them unconvincing. After a discussion that supposedly lasted 6 days, Mun-Hee helped Nobiz develope a new elemental theory - the one we know today to be fact.

The world is composed of five basic elements: Water, Wood, Fire, Metal, Earth. With this new revelation, Nobiz again sought to master all elements. He was already quite aged, and therefore pushed himself hard to find answers. Somehow, he forged the first, and to date only, Staff of the Elements. It was indeed a wonderous item, but it lacked the all-encompassing power Nobiz sought. Unsatisfied, the mage worked harder to find the answers. He left to the north and never returned.

One by one, the messengers were taken. The pirates boasted their accomplishments to the kingdoms.

Citizens gathered to protect the messengers in Buya and in Nagnang. A few pirates fell, but they moved much too fast for the citizens to catch them all.

Yes, the Pirate Captain Bluestone was back. Every citizen ran to defend our shores only to find something none of us had ever seen before! There were TWO ships, Bluestone's and one named Panda! We learned that Chan Lee was aboard the Panda. Despite these attacks and frequent forays onto the pirate's island no one was able to find out much about Chan-lee or why he followed Bluestone to Haussan.

One morning Bluestone lifted anchor, and sailed off from the coast of Hausson . Chen Lee and his group plundered some food and supplies from around the land, and then quickly gave chase again to Bluestone and his ship. The only hint gathered from all of this is that Bluestone seemed in a rather large haste in getting out of the sight of the Panda. When they left peace and tranquility returned, as well as the messengers.

People continued to think about why the pirates had come and why they wanted the messengers. A few months before the attack we had found out about an alliance that Bluestone and Nyog made between the Bluestone and the Ogres. Later on, Eldridge mentioned that the alliance had a third party that was still unknown. For a long time we tried guessing who was the third party. At first we thought that it was Sute until we discovered a new desert southwest of mythic. We began to believe that the Sonhi were the ones allied with the Ogres and Pirates.

All of our idle speculation came to an end when Eldridge received a letter from Nogh, the kindly Ogre merchant in Hamgyong Nam-Do. He was asking if anybody had any information concerning his friend Ugh who he had not heard from for some time.

Once again we scoured the lands looking for clues and found an area north of the Arctic Village full of immortal Snow Tigers. Further exploration found a large group of Ogres deep inside. It was very hard to move about because there were so many guards around. With extreme care, we crept up to a window and found a family of ogres talking about an ogre army moving to a new location in the west.

There was also an empty hut where we found some letters.

Ogre Nyog, Your army has arrived, and will make a good addition to the army. They are a little disorderly, and not used to taking orders from me. Please send one of your captains to help them get in order, or I will not be able to use them, and I will not be able to pay you for your service. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Nyog, Thank you for your gifts of these traitors. I will make sure they are well taken care of at the work site. With the right motivation they are actually pretty good workers! Just to add insult to injury I even named one of my ships after the oaf's wife, he wasn't as appreciative as he should have been so I ordered his food to be stopped for a while. Anyways, don't worry about them, I will make sure they do not get away. Bluestone ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Bluestone, I am glad to hear that you got the traitors, but even more happy that we caught them before they were able to warn anybody about my plan. As for the plans how does everything go with you? Are you on schedule for the arrival of our friend? If you need more help let me know, I will send some strong Ogre workers to help. Nyog. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ogre Nyog, I know your army has been sent to me, however I would like to know the strength of the army that I will face. Can you send someone to scout for me? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sir, I have started to breed some of our immortal snow tigers, and once they are ready I will send them out to scout and bring me back news of the lands. They will also help to soften the army you will face, and will cause great chaos in the lands. I have also prepared some special armor for the army which I will send with my son. Nyog.

One of the items found in the cave was Blank stationary. A very clever fellow named XuNuKa found a letter from Ugh when he combined the blank stationary with a coal.

I am writing to you with some great urgency. Recently the entire Ogre army has been ordered to prepare to march. The only ones to remain behind are the very old, which have poor sight and hearing and can do little in a great battle, and the ones guarding the Amber mines, as well as the Arctic caverns. Nyog has replaced the majority of the guards with snow tigers, and is trusting the defense of his realm to them. They are very strong beasts. I do not know why this order was given, but they are expected to march out on the the 1st day of the first moon, Yuri 66 to a location I do not know. Once I have sent this letter my wife and I will head to Nyog's camp, and will try to get more information concerning this sudden move, as soon as we find anything out we will send you further information. Also, I have news about Bluestone! It seems he is planning another raid on your lands, but is having trouble with ano. . .

There was no more to the letter, it seems that the writer was disrupted while writing it. Further anaylsis of the letter has shown nothing. Studies of its contents, along with past information, confirm many of the following:

- The Tigers are indeed the only defense in the cavern
- Bluestone will return, but is still being troubled with another ship, most likely the Panda
- Nyog was marching west, the first Moon of the First Month, Yuri 66

Eventually we were able to free Ugh and his wife, Panda. With Ugh's help, we found out that there was someone named Cazell behind the pirates and that Cazell was behind the gathering Ogre army.

As time passed these events faded from memory while the Vortex tribes were found near Nagnang so we were totally unprepared when the pirates returned! In addition the pirates were bombarding Dae Shore with their cannons killing most of us before we could board the ships.

Those who fought their way onto Haussan Island took shelter in Haggard Inn for a brief rest. It was observed that Haggard was acting strangely and when questioned he spoke of a mine on the pirate's island. Now a days, you folks have it easy because you can purchase a ticket for 5K and take a cruise to the island. In my day, we had to find a way to bribe our way there and go as spies. Of course some of us were better spies than others, so we found out how to make a Water jewel. Ugh was on the pirate island at the time and he told more about Cazell and mentioned that Cazell had moved on with a band of Ogres gathering wooden staves by growing Swamp Trees. Rushing off to a huge swampy area in the Woodlands we were able to grow our own Swamp Trees and get a Wooden Staff! Well with one thing leading to another, it wasn't very long before we realized that we had some of elemental items!

Once again the search was at a fever pitch and we started exploring the desert southwest of Mythic and sure enough! We were able to make an Earth Shard near a Gypsy camp! We were sure then that we were on the trail of the Staff of the Elements.

Using the clues found in the Snow tiger cave, we found the western area where the ogre army was encamped and the rest of the story I'm sure you all know by now. We found a friend of the gypsies named Soo who made a Metal mount for us.

Further exploration found another ogre camp to the north. Can you believe we had to hide ourselves as slaves because there were so many Ogre guards around? Heh, heh! As slaves it was easy to find places the Ogres thought were well hidden and ways to finesse our way through locked areas. That is how we found the Lords of Fire and Ice and the Fire of Passion!

Ah well, if you recall from the legend, Nobiz forged his Staff of the Elements so it didn't take much figuring to know we needed a smith now that we had the five elemental items. Thane in Wilderness admitted that he had a machine that could do the job but he was angry because Cazell and some ogres had used it and broken it. He also told us we needed a combination to unlock the machine once it was repaired. Now that was a puzzle no one could figure out! Imagine our surprise when someone stumbled across that scruffy random merchant that always lurks in hidden spots. If you had enough cash to meet his price, he would go into a trance (maybe because he is money hungry?). While in the trance he was able to see the combination and now we had the final bit of information needed to forge our own Staff of the Elements!