The Broken Barrens of Shandalar Have Never Been Hospitable to the Wary Stranger

The Broken Barrens of Shandalar have never been hospitable to the wary stranger…

… but, then again, they have never been met with the force of Faralyn of the Shard, an arch-mage drunk with power…

Faralyn: You call yourselves MASTER planeswalkers?

… Shaping a storm of molten lava into vainglorious totems!

Faralyn: SZAT! LESHRAC! Even you, Lim-Dûl – insipid SYCOPHANT! You thought to USE Faralyn, to escape from the SHARD that bound us all! GROVEL COWARDS! Hide benethe the dust! Shandalar’s abundance is MINE alone! I feel it! The mana is ALIVE here! On Shandalar, the folk say, “In the healer’s hands, poison is a cure.”

Lord Faralyn is about to receive wisdom of the phrase’s antithesis: He is no healer—But he drinks deeply of potent poison!

Faralyn: Follow ME, Novices, and you shall find this plane throbs to FARALYN’S heartbeat! Watch me bend it’s energies to the pattern of my wil… … a dread DOMINION limited only by my… … imagination? The curious ASTRAL DRAGON winks into being – A creature composed of purest mana, the ‘living energy’ of Shandalar.

Overwhelmed, every sophisticated ward and evasion Faralyn has taken from the shard is forgotten!

Faralyn: BURN Creature! Astral Dragon: Why do you try to hurt me? Do I threaten you? My kind thrives in but the giving… “At last, a duel.” You cry inside.. why?

The Dragon blasts Faralyn

Faralyn: What are you DOING, Creature? Replenshing me… with YOUR… energy?

Faralyn starts to turn to nothing but a skeleton

Faralyn: Ohhh…. Ohhhh… now I SEE…

Astral Dragon: Do you? I wonder. I was summoned to see if your arrival merits my creator’s attention. Sadly, I find you little more than noise.

Faralyn: NO! It is… too MUCH… I cannot—

Astral Dragon: For Kenan Sahrmal… Champion of Shandalar.

A planeswalker planeswalk into Shandalar just as the Dragon leaves.

Leshrac: Thus ends treacherous, gluttonous Faralyn… … with a DENOUMENT both sweet and fitting. His dominion was indeed limited by his imgination. Interesting. Wizards are not gods here by the number of spells in our troves… … BRAINS count as well – unfortunality for Faralyn. Which reminds me… let Leshrac be forewarned of Tevesh Szat’s arrival, Lest he call down his own brand of betrayal on my being. Fingers equally adept at scrying spells or slitting throats rake the air… … then tear the sigil’s complement into the flesh of the WALKER OF NIGHT.

Leshrac: There… by seeming LESS than I am, I shall become so much MORE. This world is warm… where I have endured bitterest cold. Shandalar is a wander! EVERYTHING leaves behind a palpable aura! Of course, Faralyn lost control! Te flying creature was comprised of LIVING MANA – a MASTERFUL piece of work. I could never endure IGONRANCE! I will not be denied,,, … full ENLIGHTMENT! I will pay this unseen wizard, Kenan Sahrmal the reverance…

… of using his art to DESTROY him! T’seem I’ve escaped an Age of Ice, and landed in a promised land… … BRING ON THE WORSHIPPERS.

(Transcribers note: Leshrac talks A LOT to himself. Usually this is the first sign of madness. O_o He even puts his hands near his head, and seems like he’s screaming in one of the panels…. That’s usually a second sign of madness. O_o. I’ve skipped several pages, because it’s about the death of Dark Elves, and introducing the two heroes: Ravash and Bani…) Twelve Weeks have passed since Leshrac’s hollow voice last disturbed the swirling sands of El-Aman.

Leshrac: Hmph. These mana sparks are NOTHING to Sahrmal’s Astral Dragon…

… But they are a start.

What? My ward – it burns… something is piercing the veil. Surrender to PLANESFALL fools – lest you go mad…

A portal appears above the sky, from it comes Lim-Dûl and Szat.

Leshrac: Let go Tevesh Szat: YYYYAAAIIIIRGHHH!

RRRRAAAAAARRRGH!

WHOEVER… MEANSSS TO TEAR ME APART FROM WITHIN…. … SHALL LEARN FIRST HAND WHY TEVESH SZAT IS CALLED THE DOOM OF FOOLSSS…

Szat’s landing causes a massive sandstorm in the desert.

Leshrac: you might call youself SAND SQUALL, too, Braggart. Szat: LESHRAC! IS THIS SSSHANDALAR? HOW MUCH OF IT HAVE YOU CONQUERED?

Leshrac: Oh, power down Szat – lest you alert the natives. You heard right -- Shandalar has a FORMIDABLE planeswalker PROTECTOR.

And I have scarce begun to learn why this world wreaks havoc with our rites…

Leshrac and Szat look over to Lim-Dûl, who is cased in stone.

Leshrac: … and our bodies.

By the way, how FARED you on Dominaria? You seemed so anxious to finish this mysterious BUSINESS of yours there. Tevesh Szat: A-HURM… WHAT HAVE WE HERE? THE FLEDGING NECROMANCER CHASSES MY TAIL – BUT ENDSSS AS HE BEGAN… … IN SSSTONE! Lim-Dûl: Great Walker of Night… I humbly live to serve! I can feel such POWER in this stone. Allow me to STUDY it – To help you understand. Now that we are all here, we can do ANYTHING.

Leshrac: Very well. Show me to the contents of your keep. TEVESH SZAT: HAH! THE CONTENT OF LIM-DÛL’S KEEP IS SSSAFELY TUCKED AWAY – BACK ON DOMINARIA. HE COMESSS HERE BEATEN, WITH SHANBLING FLOCK OF HALF- MELTED UNDEAD.

Leshrac: This is bad news, Lim-Dûl. You spent years acquiring those artefacts, and now you have nothing but ZOMBIES…?

Lim-Dûl manages to escape the stone. However he loses his horns and form to turn into a REALLY ugly person. It’s the same form as the Ice Age promotional video somewhere on You Tube against Gerda and the Elder Druid of the Juniper Order. But really uglifed.

Lim-Dûl: RRRNNNGH! I meant no offense… uhhhh! I have ever been your servant, Leshrac! Let me show you…. I can start anew! As for revenants you desire, they are here…

… but I fear someone or something has severed them from my control!

Leshrac: What am I to do with him, Tevesh Szat? He’s one of three people I know kn the entire planet – my only WORSHIPPER, for the time being and absolutely useless. Begone, Lim-Dûl, I’m out of patience. Consider yourself a BURNT OFFERING to our new world.

Lim-Dûl: arrrrrrgh! Leshrac…. Lord… why have you forsaken your only servant…

Tevesh Szat: THE MANA – IT BREATHES… ALMOST SSSENTIENT.

YOU SAID OUR MAGIC WOULD FAIL US HERE – WHAT, THEN, WAS THAT?

Leshrac: Follw me, Szat… and learn. Tevesh Szat: SSSSOOOOO… AM I TO BECOME YOUR LONE DISCIPLE LESHRAC? FORGET IT! I SEE WHAT BECOMES OF YOUR PATHETIC FOLLOWERSSS.

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE, WALKER OF NIGHT, AND I WILL GRANT YOU THIS HELLISH CORNER IN WHICH TO SPEND YOUR DWINDLING YEARS.

Leshrac: Well, well…. I believe I saw a tentacle quiver there a moment. Szat seems awkwardm uncomfortable…. An old man withouth hearth and slippers! Could it be the doom of fools knows fear? Skipped more pages. We find out Lim-Dûl can tapped into the magic of this place, and teleported away just in time. Lim-Dûl takes a different form, and fools Ravash and Bani into going to kill Szat and Leshrac.

Szat, meanwhiles finds a lake, and sees images of Tymolin and Tevesh Szat Loneglade.

Tevesh Szat: FASCINATING. SHANDALAR COULD BE… SARPADIA… BEFORE THE EMPIRESSS FELL. THOUGH ITS BEEN THOUSANDS OF YEARSSS, I REMEMBER YOU TYM LONEGLADE… HOW WE TOOK PLEASURE IN THE SMALL THINGS… YOU WOULD HAVE TOLD ME, THIS IS A FRESH PLAE – A PLACE FREE OF SSSIN AND CARNAGE, A PLACE WHERE I COULD START ANEW. SHALL I DO THIS… SSSISTER?

IMPOSSIBLE! THAT LIFE WOULD BE A LIE! ALL BEAUTY, ALL PLEASURE PERISHED WHEN I LET TYMOLIN DIE! TO ME, NOW, THIS BUBBLING STREAM…

IS FAULTESS ONLY WHEN IT’S ICE. THIS WORLD, LIKE ANY OTHER – WILL ONLY BECOME PRISTINE… WHEN IT IS SILENT.

(Transcriber’s note: Not Sssilent?)

Elsewhere.

Leshrac: Show me, my flamelings… show me the shaper of living mana…

An image of the Planeswalker protector appears in flames.

Leshrac: Hmm…. Not nearly as impressive as I could have hoped. He must know I’m here by now… … why hasn’t he shown?

More of Lim-Dûl (who calls himself the Magus, as well as impersonating the Planeswalker protector), summons a bunch of bats to attack Ravash and Bani. The ‘Magus’ blames the bats on Tevesh Szat. Ravsash, afraid of bats, cannot move. Lim- Dûl casts a mindwhip, which makes Ravash fall to her death. Bani blames the death on Tevesh Szat, and goes to find and kill him.

And meanwhile, watching in the shadows, is a strange man.

End of issue 1.