Raylan the Crusader

*Scariest fothermucker out there. -Rama*

**Enemies:**

1. **Ward Mahowald:** Old priest of Folmo. Mad cause I bummed out in his old church and prayed to THE God.
2. **The King of Nightmares:** The angriest of the Lords of Death. I lied to his stupid face.
3. **Boturo the Alpha Wolf:** The first werewolf. He's angry that we killed his best friend Tsuri. Not after me, but we can never return to the Watergate Temple or Wolf Creek.

**The bloodstained machete**

"Death took out a huge, bloodstained machete and handed it to me, he told me it was mine. When I looked at it I saw...I saw Saint 'Nock in a small church I didn't recognize. He was holding someone by the neck, he shoved a glowing sword through his stomach and threw him to the floor...it was me. Saint 'Nock killed me.

Death told me to keep the machete and then he heard our requests...Before we left I asked him what his name was...it's Dax Korveen"-Raylan

## To Pray unto The God

**The Beastmen Menace**

Oh, Lord who lives in heaven, let me tell you a story about...my day...today? I think that's how it goes.

So these beastmen guys have been attacking people around Stonehill and that's really bad. The people who live here are good and I don't think the beastmen are good, but I guess I've never talked to them before, so I guess I should...Anyway, I heard about this pirate queen named Daffy (or was it Delphi...whatever) who knows where the beastmen live, so I went to go talk to her. I didn't go by myself though, there are other folk who want to help the villagers like I do, they're good people, I really hope we can be friends.

So we went to talk to the pirate queen who turned out to be a Gorgon. It took some talking, but I was able to convince her to help us and she had two of her men show us the way to the beastmen's fort. On the way there we ran into some vine monsters that were growing inside of some corpses. They were two of the villagers who went missing, I hope they're with You now and not burning in hell forever, that would suck. Anyway, we killed the vine things and moved on to the fort. The portcullis was open a bit so we ducked inside, but the beastmen were waiting for us and they dropped the gate on top of two of the villagers who came with us to help. Arianrod was a nice girl and I hope she also believed in You, it would make me really sad if she didn't...The other one was a man, but...I don't actually know his name, so I'll just pray for him.

Now we're trapped inside the fort with the beastmen and I don't think they're going to want to talk with me, so...I guess they can't be saved.

Thank you for listening, Lord, I promise to do my best to destroy the evils of the world and save everyone! Your sword, Raylan.

Hi, Lord, it's me again. Sorry I forgot the prayer again, I'll remember for next time, promise! Anyway, there's more of this story to tell, so I guess I'll just continue where I left off.

So after we got inside the keep and the portcullis slammed shut we heard the beastmen growling and stuff from the different buildings. Gorrlin ran off in the direction of some of the growling and I haven't seen him since then, I hope he's okay. I took the rest of us over to this tower that was locked up. The fish girl turned into a pig, which I thought was strange considering pigs aren't fish, but it's okay because she knocked the door down. Inside were a bunch of beastmen, they attacked us so we killed them, I in Your name, of course. We did capture one of them for Delphi, he's still tied up in the tower, we'll get him before we leave. In the tower there were a bunch of tied up villagers so we freed them and now they're hanging out with us. We saved people!

We rested for the night and in the morning continued exploring. We found some art that showed tentacles coming out of water and some skulls that glow blue from the eye holes. We then found an underground lake with a weird obelisk thing. We took some time to look around and it looks just like that painting thing we found, but there were no tentacles. We decided to leave it for later, after all we still need to find where Gorrlin went. We opened up the chapel where a black, acid blob thing attacked me and we killed that before heading into this weird misty area of the keep.

In the mist we found a weird rune cut into the ground, a pit where the mist was coming from, and a well. When I got too close to the well I got dizzy and fell in. As I fell the world started to warp and get all weird, it's like I was falling into pure chaos. I was able to grab onto the rope so my friends could pull me out, so that's good. I do have these weird wounds that form a strange symbol on my body now, though. I'm going to have to figure out how to fix up my body because they kind of hurt a whole lot. That'll wait for later though, right now I need to find Gorrlin and make sure these beastmen don't kidnap any more villagers!

Thank you for listening, Lord, I promise to do my best to destroy the evils of the world and save everyone! Your sword, Raylan.

Oh, Lord, umm...the story is almost over, so thanks for listening to me...okay, uh...here we go.

After looking around everywhere else we decided to head back to the underground lake and see if that went anywhere. On the way there we ran into Gorrlin and a few other villagers, the beastmen had them tied up somewhere but he managed to escape all on his own. He really is a good dogman! After that we got back to the lake and took the boat, I guess I forgot to mention that before, yeah, there was a boat. We started to row, but the boat quickly started moving on it's own, bringing us across the lake. We eventually saw an island with this big step-pyramid thing with a big fire lit on top. Before we got to the shore though, these huge tentacles rose out of the water and blocked us. I used my head and lit the incense in the weird censor I found in the temple and the tentacles sank back down, letting us get to shore.

There were a lot of beastmen on that pyramid and a bunch more villagers. I dressed up in the weird robes I found with the censor and snuck my way up to the top of the pyramid, Camden came with me. There was a priest beastman up there with a weird staff with a doll thing on it. I got behind him and tried to kill him before he could finish his ritual, but I messed up and he threw the doll into the fire and the fight started.

The doll grew into a huge cyclops thing with a 3 headed flail, Camden went to fight that as I dealt with the beastmen. Vellaria freed the villagers in one of her animal forms and went to help Gorrlin with the other beastmen down below. Camden killed the cyclops and the beastmen got scared. I told them to surrender, but instead they ran, jumping off the pyramid and into the lake. I might have chased them, but the cave started to collapse, so we just got all the villagers and ran to the boat. Vellaria tried to take the censor from me because she wanted to fight the octopus thing in the water. I wouldn't let her, because it would endanger the villagers, so she jumped into the water to fight it alone. I hope she's okay, but I couldn't let her put the villagers at risk, that would have been wrong.

The boat was taken by the current out of through a hidden tunnel nearby the village. From there we brought the villagers home and delivered the beastmen we captured to Delphi to thank her for helping us. Velaria did manage to catch up to us, it seems she managed to hurt the octopus thing until it ran off. I'm glad she's safe, but I'm worried about how little she cares about the lives of others. After all that was over, I made a fire and destroyed all of the chaos stuff I found in the keep, I knew that's what You would have had me do.

Thank you for listening, Lord, I promise to do my best to destroy the evils of the world and save everyone! Your sword, Raylan.

**The Holy Sword of Michael**

Hi, Lord, it's Raylan again. Alright, I'm kind of in a hurry today so I'm going to make this kind of quick, okay? Alright, here goes!

After taking care of the Beastmen to the north You showed me where I could find Michael's angelic sword, it was on an island in the Cathedral of Saint 'Nock, but I'm sure You remember that. I asked around for help in getting the sword since I figured it wouldn't be just sitting around in the open and 4 people showed up. There was a minstrel named Alvos, a misguided priest named Kelana, a really pretty witch named Lilian, and a smelly fisherman named Dick Bangcock. They were all really nice people and must really love You if they were willing to come help. Well, Kelana might not have, but I think she was a little confused about who you are and stuff. Anyway, after we got together we hopped on Dick's boat and sailed for the island.

We began heading up the mountain and ran into a group of Orcs. After talking with them a bit they took us to the cathedral to talk to their leader. The cathedral was so big and awesome and filled with Orcs and their slaves...it was AMAZING! We met with their leader Graud who agreed to let us search around for the sword, but told us he never found it so we probably wouldn't. As we went looking this one Orc freaked out and went running so we ran after him. He managed to get away, but he dropped a page from this old diary of the head priest who used to run the place. It spoke about a creature that was mind controlling the priests and templars that then went missing inside a nearby shrine. The whole thing smelled of demons to me.

The next day we headed out for the old shrine with Graud who agreed to help us since one of his Orcs was involved. Thanks to Your blessing I was able to lead us all directly there. Once inside we began our search for the beast and the missing Orc. We ran into a few puzzles and I and Dick were separated from the rest of the group. I was challenged to a duel by a moving suit of armor which I quickly defeated and immediately tried to make my way back to the others. When I found them they were in the middle of a fight with a strange looking monster and two zombie looking things, but Lilian wasn't with them, she got separated from the others at the same time I did, I guess. Graud and I killed the 3 creatures pretty quickly and Lilian found her way back to us from behind a secret door, but something wasn't right about her, she was being controlled by the demon. I broke her free of the control, but to do it I had to hurt her...badly. She's okay now, but I still feel really bad about that.

After that we made our way down to the bottom of the shrine where the missing Orc, who was a shaman, and the demon were waiting. The demon was a large blob made of faces that was immune to our attacks, which we found out pretty quickly. Behind the demon was an old corpse wearing a strange mask and a cross. The corpse must have been the old priest and the mask I didn't quite understand, but I trusted that he was wearing it for a reason so I put it on. As I did the mask grew, it's wood wrapping around my head and I was able to see these weird screaming ghosts all around the room. I don't know how I did it, but the mask let me hurt the demon with my mind, but it also let the demon hurt me the same way.

The battle took a really long time, but I was finally able to banish it with the help of Kelana, who touched the mask and lended me her mental power. Unfortunately, doing so made Kelana vulnerable and she was killed. With the demon gone and the orc shaman dead (Graud did that) we left the shrine, taking Kelana's body, the mask and a key that we found on the dead priest. Back at the cathedral we used the key to open a secret door that led us to the sword of Michael. I took the sword and left the mask, which is now keeping the demon bound, in that secret chamber. That night we celebrated with Graud's warband and left the next morning.

My next quest is to resurrect Kelana and to do that I need to make my way to the Black Gates. She may be misguided in her beliefs, but she stood up to the demon and died to help me. She's my friend and this is the least I can do for her.

Thank you for listening, Lord, I promise to do my best to destroy the evils of the world and save everyone! Your sword, Raylan.

**Deathlands' First Contact**

Are you there God? It's me, Raylan...I know you're not happy with me, I know what I did was wrong, but I needed to do it...I needed to...

I made my way to Potters Field where I met with the people that would help me. James Blackwater, an ex-pirate or something, he wanted to help his friend too, she was turned into a statue somehow and he needed Death to help him. Hamis Patterson, a beach bum who wanted to save the oceans from necromancers and figured Death could tell him how. Camden, a fisherman and a good friend of mine who...who was just trying to help me...I'm sorry, Camden.

On our way to the Black Necropolis we were attacked by giant antlions. They killed our horse, but we were all mostly fine, just a little banged up. I tried to help us recover by healing, but something went wrong...I couldn't call upon Your miracles. It wasn't long after that a wagon pulled by two Death Knell (big skeleton knights) rolled up to us. On the wagon were a couple of old people, they said they were Caretakers of the Black Necropolis and that they'd bring us there. They also told me that I was cursed by death for offending him and that's why my healing didn't work. I would have to get his forgiveness before I could call upon Your miracles again.

We stayed the night at the Necropolis where the Caretakers told us that they'd help us get through the Black Gates but that it would be very dangerous and we might not make it back. I prayed to You that night and asked You to bless my quest. You did and for that I thank you...though I did return Your favor with disobedience. The next day the Caretakers performed the ritual and the world fell away as the Black Gates opened. Passing through the Gate was weird, it felt...wrong, like my body didn't like it. We all felt it, but nevertheless we were all mostly okay. Something strange did happen to me though, I grew a bunch of horns on my forehead. They were small and a mix of red and black, I didn't know what to think of them then, now though...I think they make a little more sense...

Anyway, we were on top of a mountain of skulls overlooking a vast grey wasteland. We made our way down a very steep staircase and walked on towards a nearby hill. Before we could make it there we were stopped by more of those Death Knell and their very big dog. These Death Knell were special though, they could talk and one of them told us we didn't belong there. I explained why we came and they told us that until we got permission from the King of Death we couldn't just walk around. They arrested us and brought us to the hill we were headed to that had a city inside of it. They brought us to an empty room where we would have to wait before being brought to the King.

The next day we were brought to a river boat that we were told would bring us all the way to the King of Death's spire. The captain of the boat was a man-sized rooster named Misthorn Foghorn. He was nice, but thought we were all stupid. We sailed down the river for many days, making a few stops along the way. Hamis got to know a few Brightwolf passengers and made some sort of deal with them for help with his ocean problem. As we sailed we would get strange visions, Jame's body started to turn to glass and my horns grew larger. That was all pretty bad, but the visions showed us that the King of Nightmares was the one who held Kelana's soul.

When we got near the tower we said our goodbyes to Misthorn and walked the rest of the way. The tower was protected by a huge centipede monster made out of human arms which was really gross, but we managed to run passed it and into the tower. Once inside we were hit by color, lots of gold. The tower was filled with treasure and sitting on a throne on the heap was an old bearded elf. He told us he was the King of Death and that he knew me. I didn't recognize him, I didn't think I ever met him before, but...he showed me things and...maybe I did know him. Death took out a huge, bloodstained machete and handed it to me, he told me it was mine. When I looked at it I saw...I saw Saint 'Nock in a small church I didn't recognize. He was holding someone by the neck, he shoved a glowing sword through his stomach and threw him to the floor...it was me. Saint 'Nock killed me.

Death told me to keep the machete and then he heard our requests. He took James' swax in exchange for turning his statue back into a person. He gave Hamis a letter to give to the Lich Lords, an order to teach him how to beat the people polluting the oceans, but in exchange he made him agree to kill the brightwolves from Misthorn's boat. As for me, he gave me a gem to give to the King of Nightmares. He told me I had to trick him into believing it was the thing that he really wanted, some great power or secret or something. Before we left I asked him what his name was...it's Dax Korveen.

We made our way to where the brightwolves were. They were waiting outside some cave that was supposed to have the great secret of the Deathlands inside it. We got there and attacked them, but they were ready for us. More wolves attacked us from behind. We killed most of them, but Hamis was killed and then my Angel Sword was pulled from my hand by some invisible force. A much bigger wolf, a Lord of Death was now watching us with my sword floating around him. He told us to stop fighting and get in the cave. Camden tried attacking but the Lord threw my sword through his chest, killing him instantly. I used my powers to keep the wolves away as James and I ran...we couldn't win and if I died then...then no one would save Kelana...I'm sorry.

We got to the King of Nightmares mansion and the burning horses let us passed. We walked through the grey halls and eventually made it to his throne room. He was a very big man in heavy furs. I told him why we were there and offered him the fake gem. I knew I wasn't supposed to lie, I know You told me not to, but...if I didn't than Camden and Hamis would have died for nothing and Kelana would still be with the Nightmares...He believed me and gave me Kelana's soul. With that we left, heading back for the Mountain of Skulls. It was a long climb, but we eventually made it to the top where more of the Death Knell were waiting for us, They gave James one of their swords, a gift from Dax. With that we left through the Gate and back to our world.

I don't know how long I was sleeping, but when I woke up Kelana was alive and my eyes were different. They were balls of glowing cyan light that made me feel uneasy looking at them. Also...I couldn't feel You with me anymore...I guess I deserve that. I lost Michael's Angel Sword, I lost two of my friends, I look like a demon with sinful eyes and I disobeyed You. I also don't know who I am anymore...I think I am, or was, a murderer...a monster...I don't know...but I'm going to find out.

I don't know if You're listening to me anymore, God, but...if you are than know that I'm sorry. Maybe one day I'll make this right with You again, but right now...right now I need to figure out who I really am.

**Oh Captain, My Captain**

Hey, God, it's Raylan...I don't know if you're listening anymore, but it feels weird not doing this, so here goes...

We met up in Kernby to speak with their woods witch and see if she could fix our bodies. James Blackwater wanted his arms and chest made flesh again (the Deathlands turned them into glass). I wanted my eyes fixed (they were all spooky and scared people) and hoped that she could make the horns go away, too. Kelana wanted a new arm having lost it to some strange creature back in the demon temple. Harry the Green wanted...well, his body was fine, he wanted information about some big sea monster.

Anyway, we all met up aside from Kelana who was running late, she needed to see her people and let them know she was alive. In the mean time we managed to make the villagers pretty mad at us for one reason or another. Once we were ready we headed for the witch, but were stopped by this old water bearer. You see the quickest way to the witch was through the old well in town and he didn't like us climbing down there. Harry got really mad at him and tried to throw him down the well, but I stopped him. The guy ran off to get the townsfolk, but that was something we didn't know until we returned from the witch.

We traveled down the secret tunnel at the bottom of the well and on the way the passage thinned and gave out under my feet. I fell in the water and when I did this black oil oozed off of me and into the water. I didn't know exactly what it was at the time, but it scared me...now that I do know what it is it scares me even more. Aside from the fall the tunnel was uneventful and we found ourselves in the woods fairly quickly. It didn't take us long after that to run into the witch, or actually, she found us. At first she looked like a very pretty young woman and tried to wrap us up in vines, but she let her disguise fall and stopped trying to wrap us up when we told her why we were there. The witch is really a very old woman who can't speak like we do. Through a drawing she explained that she was very weak at the moment and would need us to get her some sort of power source before she could help us. She told us about an amulet made of the ashes of a dead god currently held in a church of werewolves.

On the way back to Kernby we ran into Kelana in the well tunnel, she fell in the water with my black oil stuff...After fishing her out we explained what we had to do and climbed back up the well. Back in the village we were confronted by an angry mob. The water bearer, Ward I think his name is, told them about us going to see the witch and they didn't seem to like that. We let them take us to their town hall where we waited for the baron to show up so we could explain ourselves. When Baron Drayer heard what we did he was very mad, even suggested having us executed. Thankfully not all of the villagers hated us and one of them, Annabelle Black, convinced Drayer to let us go as long as we tried to broker a new deal between them and the witch. He didn't like that idea, but eventually he gave up arguing and agreed. With that settled we headed for the town of Wolf Creek on the other side of the witch's forest (going around it, of course, that place is kind of scary).

The people of Wolf Creek are different then those of Kernby. They are rough and like fighting and drinking. They also worship the first werewolf who they call "The Alpha. Kelana and I managed to find a priest who was willing to lead us to the templ of Watergate, where the werewolves live. In the morning he led us throug hthe hills to the temple where we got to see of their religious ceremonies. The werewolves were out and turning some people, hunters I think, into werewolves. Before the ceremony could finish we heard howling coming from the woods and more werewolves came running out and attacking everyone.

I flew into a rage so I don't remember much, but when I calmed down the battle was over. The other werewolves had ran away, which was good, but they captured Blackwater, which was bad. Before running after them we spoke with one of the Watergate wolves who told us we could enter the temple if we killed the other wolves' leader, Surinuri or something, and bring back his head. So, we ran into the woods to track them down, get the head, and save Blackwater.

It didn't take us too long to find them, well, I guess they found us. Blackwater had managed to free himself which was good, but one of their scouts had brought the camp to us which was bad. There were a lot of them, like 15 or so. Blackwater and I ran straight for Suri and he managed to hit the wolf pretty hard, but I think Suri killed me...at least for a little while. I was back in the well at the Beastmen's fortress and there was this...tendril or something, something to grab onto, something to pull myself out...So I took it. I woke up then, back in the woods with the wolves, but I was different. My head was spinning and I was taller, older even. My horns were much bigger and my veins were black and showed through my skin...the ground turned black and twisted at my feet. I remember...calling for tendrils to wrap up the werewolves while Blackwater finished off Suri. After that we had to go, there were too many of them. I went to get Kelana, but she...backed away from me...she was afraid of me. That hurt, but I get it now and I guess it didn't matter, we had to run away anyway.

Blackwater held them off for a while to give us a head start. We ran into some burned out clearing where we felt we were far enough away then...I collapsed. There's a hole in my memory, all I remember is being in a lot of pain and when I woke back up I was myself again, but...I still felt wrong. I could still feel...whatever I was inside of me. Blackwater caught up with us shortly after that and we made our way back to the temple.

When we got back to the temple we showed Krak, the wolf we spoke to earlier and showed him Suri's head. He was kind of surprised we actually did it and he let us into the temple to rest up. Krak explained that the amulet was their only way of talking to their god and he showed it to us. Kelana was able to use it to talk to the Alpha, Boturo is his real name and he explained to her some of what happened. The rest I was able to see through the machete Dax gave me. It showed a man made of fire killing the great wolf and sealing his spirit away. We knew we couldn't just take the amulet knowing what it did, so we came up with a better idea: We'd free Boturo from his spirit prison, if we could do that than he could talk to his people whenever he wanted to and they wouldn't need the amulet anymore.

While we healed up at the temple the werewolves were planning for war. They knew the Nuongbow (I think that's what the other werewolves were called) would attack sometime soon. They asked us if we would help them and which course of action sounded better. We told them to bring the fight to them in the woods and we would help, but we would split up. Harry and James would go with the wolves and help them fight while Kelana and me would run off back to the burned clearing and try to free Boturo (Kelana figured out that that's where his spirit was sealed).

The day of the battle came so Kelana and I made our way to the clearing. Once there we contacted Boturo using Kelana's holy magic and my spirit senses. He appeared and we told him that his people were about to kill each other and if we freed him he needed to stop it. He agreed, but didn't know how we would do it, but I had an idea. I had a lot of time to think about what that thing inside me was while at the temple and I figure that I am...or I'm turing into some kind of demon. The black stuff is some kind of unholy taint, so...if I could bring out the...demon maybe I could desecrate the holy bindings keeping Boturo trapped. He figured it was worth a shot, so I tried it and it worked! I was able to corrupt the chain, cancelling the holy power and then Kelana and I shattered it. After forcing the...demon back down we both hopped onto Boturo's back and he hurried to the battleground.

When we got their the battle was over with the Nuongbow defeated, but not all dead. The precense of Boturo was able to calm them, but everything went wrong one of the werewolves mentioned that we killed Suri. Boturo leapt on top of me and threatened to kill me. Suri was his bestfriend and he would have killed me had Blackwater not stood up for me and told Boturo that he was the one who did it. The wolf would have then killed him if Kelana hadn't pleaded with him...He let us live, but told us to never come back. He said if we did he would kill us, then he would kill Kelana's god...so we left.

As we left Blackwater showed us that he had stolen the Ashen Amulet before going to help out at the battle. I was kind of upset with him and Kelana was disappointed, but I guess it was what we went there for. So, with that, we made our way back to the witch and handed the amulet over to her. She absorbed it's power by eating it and extended some vines to us to link our minds so we could speak. She thanked us and gave everyone what they wanted. Blackwater had his body healed up, Kelana got her arm back, Henry got to know where his "Three-Eyed Beast" was and I...well, she couldn't really help me. I originally wanted my eyes fixed up, but the whole...demon thing kind of changed that. She couldn't cure me, but she gave me something to help suppress the demonic taint that I spread when I transform. Unfortunately it's a kind of root powder and there's only a couple of doses of it.

We then told her about Kernby and how they wanted a new deal. She agreed to let them use the woods as long as they would provided someone from the village for her to give some of her power to to act as a guardian while she was away healing nature elsewhere. We took her offer to the people of Kernby and the Baron, again, wasn't very happy, but the villagers like the idea and eventually he agreed to let them make the deal. Annabelle Black agreed to become the new forest guardian and with that, our adventure came to an end.

I don't exactly know what's wrong with me, God, but if I'm right and I am becoming a demon than I know I need to purify myself...that, or kill myself before it can take me over completely. I know I've failed you once already, but I promise you...I won't let this get out of hand. I won't let myself become one of those monsters...I won't...