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Stonehelm is the central city of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic as one of the oldest Free Cities.
History[]
Located right next to the Wolf Duchy of the Holy Falcon Empire, Stonehelm is the oldest Free City although not the biggest one. It was founded in 48 YSD, soon after Brian Falcon's conversion to Elrath, when some of his subjects, refusing to abandon their patron Ylath, Dragon of Air, in favor of the Dragon of Light, decided to exile themselves. Populated by ordinary humans, mages and dwarves, it is rumored to have been built on an ancient Shantiri necropolis.
Centuries later, Sareth is tasked by his teacher Phenrig to deliver the Shantiri Crystal to Stonehelm's Mage Lord Menelag and to join his expedition to the Spider Temple Island to seek the Skull of Shadows.
However, Arantir, who is also after the Skull of Shadows, sends his necromancers to attack Stonehelm as Sareth reaches it, and even though he assists in the city's defenses and kills an undead cyclop, earning the city's admiration, the necromancers infiltrate Menelag's mansion during the night when a ghoul kills Menelag and steals the Shantiri Crystal chased by Sareth who infiltrates the necromancers' hideout inside the city and down under the city where Arantir himself is preparing to open a portal to Nar-Heresh while Sareth sneakily snatches the Shantiri Crystal away then falls down a river and loses consciousness as he runs away, which triggers a flashback from when his teacher Phenrig tasked him to join Menelag to Stonehelm and summoned Xana to accompany him inside his body however this flashback is different from his memory and he starts distrusting Xana who pretends that this dream was merely a necromancer curse.
Then he joins back Leanna in the city's port and helps her getting back Menelag's boat from the necromancers who stole it, then they sail away to the Spider Temple Island where Sareth grows fed up of dungeon-crawling before he FINALLY gets out of it and states that he will not miss it then comes back to Stonehelm to pursue Arantir who has stolen the Skull of Shadows from him and killed him before Xana revived him as a demon determined to settle his score with Arantir so he returns into the necromancers' lair under the city where the portal is now open to Nar-Heresh which he crosses to seek his nemesis wherever he is.
So, after some more dungeon-crawling in Nar-Heresh, he comes back to Stonehelm once again and more determined than ever to stop Arantir after having learned in Nar-Heresh that Arantir plans to sacrifice all of the city's inhabitants in order to fix the flaw in Sar-Elam's barrier between Ashan and Sheogh. Sareth then battles his way through the ravaged and burning city which has turned into a warzone between the city's guards and Arantir's army of undeads and can go to the city's Sanctuary of Ylath in order to purify himself from his demonic corruption as Leanna wishes.
If he actually approaches Ylath's Sanctuary then the Seventh Dragon speaks to him as he recognizes him as the son of Isabel and invites him to enter into the Sanctuary and purify himself while Xana tries to dissuade him to do so.
If he does enter into the Sanctuary then Xana begs him to stop because she wants to be with him forever and if he still goes all the way then she gets banished from his body back to Sheogh as she swears her vengeance to him while still calling him her love and his father gets mad at him for having rejected his gift whereas the Seventh Dragon blesses him, grants him some Dragon Knight's weapons which are overpowerful against undeads and encourages him to get his skull back from Arantir.
When Sareth reaches the city's necropolis, he is confronted by Leanna who reacts differently depending of his previous actions and he has to kill her if he did not rescue her in Nar-Heresh or if he did not purify himself in the Sanctuary of Ylath otherwise she is happy that he purified himself but still sends him dungeon-crawling alone as usual because she has been battling necromancers all over the city and needs to rest before joining him after he has done all the work by himself as usual.
Whoever remains with Sareth between Xana or Leanna, he dungeon-crawls the city's necropolis until he reaches Arantir who is powering his spell to sacrifice the city's souls then Sareth's lover, being either Xana or Leanna, feels confident that they can defeat Arantir together and Sareth charges Arantir who summons a bone dragon to defend him since he has been focusing his power on his spell.
After having defeated Arantir, Sareth has to choose to use the Skull of Shadows to either fix the flaw in the barrier between Ashan and Sheogh to seal Sheogh away forever or to either break the barrier and free the demon kind from their prison.