You trudge through the empty landscape. You are overwhelmed by the level of devastation that has ravaged this realm. How could it have happened? you wonder. Such destruction. Such death...
You gaze over the wasted land. Suddenly, you hear a low cough behind you. You step cautiously towards the source and turn a corner slowly. You find an old woman huddled against a crumbling wall for protection against the howling winds of the wasteland. She is dressed in rags and her body reeks with filth. Despite her current appearance as an ancient hag, you can see that once, long ago, she was a very beautiful woman in her own right. Her cracked lips open and sound issues from them.
"Ah, the babe wonders how its forefathers could have existed here..." she says. "If the children of today would only take the time to sit and listen to the dead of yesterday, just for a little while...But who would stay for the ramblings of an old woman?"
Her words strike a chord of pity deep within you. "Pray, go on, Granny," you urge her. "I will listen to you."
She smiles weakly and continues. "Let me tell you, child, this was a land like no other. All sorts of people lived in harmony here--Humans, Elves, Dragons, Trolls, Angels, Daemons, Dwarves...This was a land of vitality and happiness, and ultimately, death and tragedy. It was filled with love and peace, jealousy and admiration, hate and discord. The people had a zest, a passion for living unlike any other I have ever known." She sighs. "What I would give to spend just one more day there..." The old woman trails off, falling silent.
You study her quietly, digesting her words.
"But I am too old," she admits. "I wish someone could go back....Go back to tell them to avert this horrible fate...I am not strong enough to undertake such a journey. The life has been sapped out of my worn body." She brightens visibly. "What about you, child? Perhaps I can find it within myself to send you there...." The hag holds out her hand, from which a soft blue glow begins eminating. It manifests itself into a throbbing, humming sphere and floats high into the sky, expanding vastly. The wasteland winds whirl around the portal, throwing up dirt and crumbling stone.
"Go, child!" She howls at the top of her ancient lungs. "Help them realize the damage they have done before it is too late!"
You hesitate, gazing at her a moment longer, then turn and sprint towards the portal. You leap in headlong, hoping that the old woman was not senile and that she has not sent you to some deep bowel of Hell to be tormented forever by the Devils. You are enveloped in shining light that blinds you totally.