Magic and Mysteries

I use magic in all aspects of my life. I use shadow and flame, demons and curses to destroy my enemies and turn the world to my will. In my crafts, I extract magical elements from things that I find, and in turn use those elements to imbue my equipment with magical powers. I make special clothing and craft virtues into it such that it gives its wearer special abilities. I have achieved a high level of mastery at these crafts.

Yet for all my studies, for all my understanding of magic, this world is still a mystery to me. As I travel, I am often asked by those whose towns I frequent to assist them with things that they cannot do themselves. In return, they will often reward me with gold and some special piece of equipment. Even stranger, when I am with my guild in a dank, distant fortress, we sometimes come across very powerful pieces of armor or jewelry, presumably left behind by some forgotten adventurer who overestimated his or her own abilities. It is the nature of these things that confuses me most.

My guild and I recently banded together with some other hardy adventurers into the pit of Naxxramas, a truly Light-forsaken place inhabited by all manner of fiends under the control of Arthas' minion, Kel'Thuzad. We forayed into the area known as the Arachnid Quarter, so called because it is infested with all manner of foul spiders. We successfully slayed the Web Lord, and then the Grand Widow, both tales of their own, before taking on the giant spider-beast known as Maexxna.

This foul creature's lair was strewn with corpses, old, forgotten gear, and many disgusting yet unidentifiable piles. We set at her time and again, each time to be beaten back. Fortunately, we have shaman and priests among us who can control the very essence of life. (I control only death, and so I wonder at the conflict they feel when a lifegiver must, of needs, restore a life-taker.) We would regroup, prepare ourselves, and have at her again. Finally, the beast fell.

As we searched about the room, I came across a small charm on a thin chain. It was crafted of a dark metal I could not identify, and the chain, while thin, was exceedingly strong. The look of the thing told me it was very old, with an ornate, forbidding skull engraved on one side and some symbols that I could not decipher on the other. As soon as I picked it up I could sense the magic emanating from it.

I showed it to the others, and we priests, mages, and warlocks analyzed its function. It seemed to be somehow linked to me, though I do not know how or why. When the others held it, or tried to sense it, they got nothing. They agreed that I should keep it for now.

I looked at my new charm, and noticed that when I cast a spell, it seemed to glow a bit. The more powerful the spell, the more strongly it would glow, and the more I could sense its magic. In our next battle, as I was casting a spell that engulfs my enemy in flames, the charm began to glow quite brightly and surrounded me in a strange purple light. I could feel my magical powers grow, and suddenly, as I completed casting my spell, my enemy burst into flames with incredible intensity and died. After a few seconds, the charm stopped glowing and th light faded from me. This would repeat itself every so often. I came to understand that this charm was somehow charging itself, storing up my magical powers, and then releasing them in a burst of magic that made my spells much more powerful.

When I got back to Dalaran, I consulted one of the mage historians, who told me that such a charm is very rare and is called a 'Dying Curse' because its activation spell doom for the enemy of its user. The historian also told me that though the magic isn't well understood, such items are bound magically to a single person, whether it be the one who picks it up, or the one that it selects, and that none other may use it while that person lives.

That is all well and good, but where did this charm come from, and how did it come to be where I found it, and why did it choose me to carry it? These questions give me pause, and remind me that there is much that I still do not understand.