Appearing in "Comes the Darkness!"
Featured Characters:
- Sir Percy of Scandia (First appearance; dies)
- Black Knight / "Sir Percy" (Sir Richard) (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Merlin
- King Arthur (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Antagonists:
- Modred (First appearance)
- Kargal (First appearance; dies)
- Unnamed guardian of the Ebony Blade (First appearance; dies)
- Unnamed demon (First appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
- Mynna (First appearance)
- Orford (First appearance)
Locations:
- Unidentified reality (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Great Britain (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Scandia (First appearance)
- Earth (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Items:
- Excalibur (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Ebony Blade (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Synopsis for "Comes the Darkness!"
In King Arthur’s court serve identical twin loyal knights, the valiant Sir Richard and the dilettante Sir Percy. While Richard is unmatched in battle, his brother is a cowardly musician, ill-spoken of by others at court. During festivities to mark a battle well-fought, a beggar arrives at Camelot seeking an audience with Richard- sending the sign of a pentagram, Merlin arrives to relay the story of the forging of Excalibur- and her dark sister, Chaos the Doombringer, an ebony blade sought by Arthur’s nephew Sir Modred. In order to prevent Modred achieving the blade, Merlin instructs Richard to capture the blade alone and in secrecy, but is interrupted by the drunken Percy who determines to accompany his brother. Meanwhile, Modred’s lieutenant Kargal proposes they bide their time and ambush Merlin’s agents once the sword has been recovered.
Ambushed by bandits, Richard defeats them with ease as Percy watches, then ventures into a cave where he is captured by a man-octopus. As Percy bursts into the cave and attacks the octopus, Richard bids him wait- the octopus is not attempting to hurt him, and is revealed to be guarding a witch’s cave. The witch directs Richard and Percy to the blade, but with dire warnings- their quest will end in death, and a loss greater than that which Richard can imagine. Their journey takes them through encounters with vampires, zombies, wolves and yeti, while Modred and Kargal watch Camelot and plan a contingency- if the blade cannot be won in combat, Kargal’s thrice-cursed amulet will release dark magic to capture the blade. Richard and Percy lose their horses in a swamp, but discover a clearing where a large beast guards the black sword, clasped in a dark gauntlet as a mirror of the lady presenting Excalibur. Richard is beaten by the beast, however Percy draws the blade against his brother’s protestations and runs the monster through. Claiming Chaos’ power for his own, Percy leads his brother back to Camelot, enraptured by the blade, and when Richard insists it be surrendered to Merlin, Percy refuses. Merlin muses that Percy may already be lost to them.
Outside, Kargal and his men waylay Percy, mistaking him in his new warrior bearing for his brother, and he quickly takes the upper hand, christening himself the Black Knight. The noise of the attack draws Richard, who arrives as a crossbow bolt to the back slays his brother and Kargal recovers the ebony blade. Richard’s mere steel is no match for the star-forged weapon, but he hurls his broken sword at Kargal and pierces the villain’s throat. As Kargal dies, he unleashes the power of the amulet and a giant red demon appears to claim the sword. For his brother’s honour Richard refuses to relinquish the blade, and discovering that it cannot be used to defeat the demon, is defeated. However, Merlin calls to the gods who empower Avalon’s witches and uses their power to separate demon from sword, giving Richard the chance to snatch the blade and strike true to behead the demon. As the demonic magic is freed, Richard and Merlin agree this to be only the start of their problems.
Modred’s servants report their success in slaying Richard of Scandia, but begin a plan to use other means to win Arthur’s throne. As Merlin and Richard burn Percy’s body they discuss the risks of wielding the ebony blade, and Richard’s need to adopt a foppish routine as Sir Percy in order to honour his brother’s memory and keep Arthur safe; Sir Richard thusly swears to defend Camelot as the Black Knight.