	Scotland, 1650 - the moon is full tonight.  Its light shines down
upon the ruined house in front of you.  When you were a child, the
name of Drochsolas was enough to give you nightmares.  Now, you are a
grown man, and a veteran of many battles, but the name is still enough
to send shivers up your back.

	Years ago, Drochsolas Manse was home to a Baron, just as it had
been to his ancestors.  Since his death, it has stood abandoned and
despised, but not forgotten.  The mansion is a constant reminder of
the evil which once dwelt there, the evil which many say dwells there
still.

	The Baron was never loved by his people.  When he returned from a
trip abroad, newly-married to a beautiful young woman, there was no
talk of celebration to mark the event.  Instead, the townspeople
whispered to each other about how sad and lonely the new Baroness
seemed to be and how horrible life must be for her inside the Manse.

	Time passed, and eventually the Baron and his wife became the
parents of a beautiful baby girl.  The birth was not easy for the
Baroness and her health was never good afterward.  She died soon after
her child's 12th birthday.

	The Baron, already well-known for his autocratic callousness
toward his people, became even more of a tyrant after the death of his
wife.  If he ever had a spark of goodness in him, it was extinguished
by his grief.  Rumors started of strange events surrounding the Baron.
It was said that he was experimenting in matters best left alone in an
attempt to bring the spirit of his wife back from the world beyond
this one.

	Along with the more ordinary troubles brought on by the Baron's
oppression, his people were forced to deal with a series of disasters,
ranging from the steady failing of their farmlands to a terrible
series of plagues.  While none could prove that these were a
manifestation of the Baron's experiments, it was widely believed that
he had indeed opened the doorway for some manner of dark power that
was bringing these afflictions to the people.  Those who dared to be
abroad during the night of the full moon reported seeing unnatural
beasts and spirits at play in the fields under the moonlight.

	This suspicion of witchcraft must have reached the ears of the
Church, but somehow they never came to investigate.  Likewise, not a
single word of protest was heard from the crown.  It was said that the
beleaguered King, so badly in need of support in Scotland, had
tolerated the Baron in exchange for his loyalty.  It was even said
that it was this regal favor that kept the witch-hunters of the Church
at bay.

	The child grew and became a lovely young woman.  She had inherited
her mother's melancholy instead of her father's cruelty and her mood
often took her wandering across the countryside away from her father
and the dismal house they lived in.  It was during one of those
rambles that she met James Malloy, a poor farmer's son.

	Love blossomed quickly between the two and the young Lady Deirdre
Drochsolas became a new person, filled with light and energy.  The two
of them made plans to steal away from the area forever, leaving behind
the Baron to live out his days alone.  It was more then unfortunate
that word of their plans reached the ears of her father, who
imprisoned the girl within his house and refused to let go of what he
saw as his final link to his late wife.

	As for James Malloy, he was overcome by a strange wasting disease
that drained his youthful energy away from him.  Although he was young
and strong, it was too much for him.

	It was after the news of her lover's death was delivered to her
that Deirdre began to slip away from this world.  Only a few months
passed between the funeral ceremonies of the two young people.  The
people of the village wondered to each other as to the nature of her
passing.  Some said murder, some said suicide.  Some said she was
stricken by the same strange and unnatural plague that claimed her
paramour.

	The young maid from Drochsolas Manse first brought the tale of the
ghost to the town.  Shortly before she was to flee the Manse and its
master forever, she told her kinsfolk of the beautiful, unearthly
maiden who wandered through the halls of the Manse when the light of
the full moon filled them.  Even in death, the Baron's daughter had
not escaped his grasp.  Her spirit was trapped within the same walls
that had imprisoned her body in life.

	Finally the Baron died, but the farmland still did not regain its
past fertility, and so the people still suffered from famine and
poverty.  Since the stormy night when the Baron's body was placed in
his family tomb and his sole remaining servant fled from the place
forever, no one has dared approach the Manse.  The brave men who
ventured into that place to perform the burial have spoken of how they
could sense the spirit of the Baron still watching them somehow.  They
had hoped to entomb his evil along with his mortal remains, but they
had failed.  The hand of the Baron still reaches out from Drochsolas
Manse to choke the life from the people, and the ghost of his daughter
still wanders the halls of the house.

	The death of King Charles ended the campaign against Cromwell and
his Roundheads for good, and so you returned to your homeland.  Since
the joyful news of the Baron's death had reached you in England, you
had rightfully expected to find great improvement there.  To an
embittered man, hardened from fighting a war lost after eight long
years, this was almost too much to bear.  Somehow, you vowed, the
curse must be lifted for good.  And the key to that must lie somewhere
within the hallways of Drochsolas Manse.

	And so it is to that cursed place that you have come.  Tonight,
under the light of the moon, you will challenge the darkness inside
Drochsolas Manse in an attempt to cure the blight which has ruined the
land...

