Gemma di Amore; The Red Gem of Love

Name: Gemma di Amore; or The Red Gem of Love

Power: It feeds on hearts of people that have been spurned by their love interest, and, when wielded correctly, can force people to fall in love with the holder of the gem.

History:

The red gem of love is notorious for its mysterious and intoxicating power. While many covet it for its beauty and worth, others fear its undeniable power of all those within close proximity to it.

When the gem first came to Alsantres, everyone that knew of its new home felt that this heartless place was the best location to tuck away the powerful and valuable gem. This was because the gem is known ot feed off of emotional, lovesick hearts. In truth, its power cannot be awakened unless there is a needy heart within range.

Because of this, Alasantres was the perfect location as it is a known fact that all that lurk within its boundaries have hearts filled with nothing but anger and bitterness. This held true for a length of time, and the gem of love stayed dormant, locked in the pits of Alasantres under heavy guard.

However, after years of loveless existance, Alasantres has been thrown into deep unrest. The power of the gem was reawakened, and a powerful sense of love is pulsing through the land of Alasantres, making all that live here sick with loving, romantic feelings. As to be expected, this sensation has riled the inhabitants into discontent, especially thier king, Tor Vorigan. Vorigan is now responsible to find this "bleeding heart" and silence it before all Alasantrians are driven to madness by the foreign and unwanted feelings of warmth.

It is now Vorigan's quest to find the wretch within his boundaries that is the cause of the plague of lovesick hearts contaminating his land. Until he rids himself of this pest, his civilians will be weakened by the hearts that they had--beforehand--long since forgotten.

However, it's quite difficult to find the source of the gem's power when all under his rule have now started acting like lovesick fools. When he does find this current bane to his existance, may the victim feel the mercy of a quick death rather than the torture that Vorigan wishes to bestow on the creator of all of his grief.

To only add to his burden, Vorigan is under a time limit to find this person as well, because, as long as they're around, the gem is pulsing with its energy, and that energy can be detected by anyone particularly crafty enough to trace it, which could lead any manner of person to its hidden location. And no one wants the gem to fall in the wrong hands now, do they?

*Note: The gem's power has no effect within the walls of the castle of Deciphus. The reason for this is relatively unknown with only a few uncertain guesses that it has something to do with the age of the castle and the spells and sorcery that most likely have been cast on the walls at some point in history in order to avoid situations such as these. However, all those outside the walls of the Castle and within the boundaries of Alasantres are able to be contaminated by the power of the gem.



The location of the gem is a secret, simply because if it were to fall in the wrong hands, disaster could very well strike, and strike hard. The only soul that knows of its location--other than the one's that guard it--is Tor Vorigan, and he has made it his personal pleasure in making the Gem of Love impossible to find. At best, the path to claiming the Gem of Love means certain death.

Vorigan has never been worried over the discovery of the Gem simply because the entrance to the whereabouts of the Gem is in his very own bedroom, and no one enters that chamber unless he invites them. Standing as the guard to his treasure, Tor may be the first obstacle, but he is not the last.

Behind the solid, four-poster oak bed of Tor Vorigan there is hidden door that leads into a dungeon carved into the cliff around Vorigan's castle. If one is brave enough, or perhaps dumb enough, to move the bed of Vorigan himself, they may press their weight into the concealed door until it gives and swings inward. Upon which, if not careful, they will fall immediately into the spike pit on the other side of the entrance. However, the cautious thief will have pushed the door inward expecting a trap and easily leap over the medium-sized square in the floor and be on their way down a tunnel.

This tunnel is forged of solid stone and is only large and wide enough for a man who is no larger or wider than Tor himself. The heat inside is pressing and will be the first to ward away the unwanted guest. However, if this person is to press forward, they will have to find their way in utter blackness down the tunnel until they find the end in which it splits into three tunnels, all equally as small and dark.

Should they choose any of the tunnels other than the one on the left, they will inevitably meet a painful death at the mercy of some booby trap or monster locked inside.

From there on out--after selecting the left tunnel--the intruder will meet and have to avoid a series of booby traps, a pitch-black maze, a few burly, hungry ogres, and perhaps insanity itself before they may finally reach the room in which the gem of Love is kept.

Their trials are not over even then, however, and the worst is quite possibly yet to come. The last task is to open a coffin and pry the gem from the cold, dead hands of a very temperamental vampire lord.

One that has grown considerably irritable over the years and guards the gem with his life, a life that was wasted away by his pain over a refusal from the woman he loved. Because of this painful, unrequited love, the vampire has grown fiercely powerful in his misery, and is almost impossible to defeat. If the soul intruding in his cavern truly wishes to steal the gem from him the must give him a sacrifice of equal worth--unless they wish to chance a duel in which they will most surely lose--, and it must be the one whose "bleeding heart" first awakened the gem's power. This lovesick individual must be given to the vampire in order for the intruder to receive the gem.

There is no other way...


*Note: The bleeding heart is a vampire by the name of Gemma Octavia. However, it is not a known fact and will have to be discovered along the way.