The Orb of the Heavens
This polished black orb, made from a meteor that fell to earth in ages past was crafted over 2000 years ago. The sphere is 12 inches in diameter, and floats above a four-foot tall polished black stone pedestal. Although it is virtually impossible to see the seams when the Orb is properly assembled, the device is actually an intricate hollow stone puzzle, a series of seven orbs within orbs. Etched on the surface of each nesting orb is a portion of Raia’s night sky. When properly nested the orbs move freely within each other, in time with the rotation and orbit of Raia and its single moon.
This current attack has been forty years in the planning, and it is not the first attempt by followers of Oblivion to exert the Dark Lord’s power over the world. Two thousand years ago a dwarven master craftsman and follower of Oblivion created the Orb, and he and his fellow worshipers attempted a ritual to alter the very nature of the cosmos, using the orb as a focus. The effort was defeated by the newly arrived Amthydorans with the help of the dwarven clans who had previously settled in the area. Upon the defeat of the dark priests, the Orb was entrusted to the Amthydoran dwarves for safekeeping. It was thought that with their longer lives, and therefore longer memories, they would be able to keep it safe deep within the earth. It was decided that knowledge of the Orb and its location would be kept a closely guarded secret, within two trusted families, with the knowledge passed from father to son. This worked well for the first 1800 years, until both fathers were unexpectedly killed in not-so accidental ‘accidents’ before they could pass the knowledge of their charge onto their heirs. While the dwarves had lost the knowledge of the Orb, the followers of Oblivion had not.
The Darkbringers have learned from their past failure. They have discovered a mystical ritual to bind the motion of the Orb to the movements of the celestial bodies depicted on its surface. They have halted the spinning of the inner sphere that represents the moon, thus halting the motion of the moon itself, holding it permanently in place directly blocking the sun and thus causing the eclipse.
In a fitting mockery of the dwarves who succeeded in preventing the previous attempt, and who sheltered the Orb for nearly 2000 years, the Darkbringers have chosen the ancient dwarven ruins beneath Amthydor as the site for their new ritual.