The Journal of an Overlord, Volume 1

Here lies the the beginning of the story so far. Click **here** to go to the *Journal of an Overlord, Volume 2.*

In several ways, it all starts with **Name that Keeper** by PsyckoSama.

## ***Forging the bond***

Our story begins on the peaceful island of Albion. Hidden behind it's mists and separated from the rest of the world, this land has been kept safe form external threats for several thousand years.

That is - till Mordred came.

Nobody knew who he was or where he came from but from the moment his warship came trough the mist and reached the shore all he did was spread havoc. Leading an army of orcs and even ogres and undead he began raiding villages while setting up a base on the south west of Albion. The authorities were scrambling and preparing for a counter attack when, as if it was the providence of the Light, a mysterious foreigner appeared and offered his council to the lord leading the charge. Warning him of the threat that loomed outside of the mist and the existence of Dungeon Keepers.

Thanks to the strangers advice, Baron Leopold's response was extremely fast,and by his command and leadership a militia was formed to repel the invader. Soldier and adventurers, the young and the old, mages and swordsmen, it did not matter who you were, as long as you wanted to fight for what was right (or for the 5 gold coin payment) you were welcome to join.

### - Day 1:

The Barons call to arms was answered with vigor. People from all corners of Albion came flooding into the camp. Some hoped to gain wealth, some hoped to gain renown while others just hoped for a fresh beginning. One such unlucky sod (not exactly what you could call fresh for the fight) arrived there the morning before the battle, his name - Ril Veius.

Now spit into groups, the militia was gathered and blessed by an abbot of the Church of the Light and given instructions. They were informed that The Council of Wizards, mages from the Institute of Higher Learning, had already set up a massive scrying mirror by using the waters of a nearby pond. They would use their magic to overview the battlefield and inform the militia members of dangers such as traps and ambushes. Using this magic (along with the *scrolls of teleportation* that were provided to one member of each squad) soldiers that are not a part of the main offensive force will be sent directly into enemy territory to act as reinforcements wherever needed.

The battle was a sight to behold. Everybody standing at arms by the pond was holding their breath. Images flashed across the hallways of Mordred's underground fortress as men fought against creatures only spoken of within legends. And, as the battle went underway, it was only a matter of time before the squad earlier mentioned Ril was ordered to teleport in. The group was sent in to reinforce the squire Argenta and his unit, but never arrived.

[Then the events written in **Name that Keeper** by PsyckoSama happen.]

A teleportation accident brings Ril’s group of reserve fighters to a deserted underground complex which looks similar but not exactly like the one they were told to invade. A Horned Reaper, ecstatic over the fact that he has gotten visitors in so long (and expressing it in a way that only a Horned Reaper could), massacres the nearly everybody group and offers to spare Ril’s life if he activated the dormant Dungeon Heart. Ril, now being held by the throat above the stone pedestal, begins to feel power surging trough him which he decides to use in a last ditch effort to fight back against the demon. However, Ril being Ril, he was not aware that by using that power with the intention to kill was one of the conditions to activate and get bound to the Dungeon Heart.

### - Day 2:

Ril, now faced with a situation far beyond anything he could have imagined, was now trapped underground with an enormous Evil Artifact, his two comrades which were in mortal danger of their wounds and a Greater Demon. In a desperate attempt to get help he asks the Horned Reaper to save his comrades. But because the Reaper has no knowledge of any magic (let alone healing magic) the best he could hope for was an explanation how to get in touch with somebody who could help.

Under the Reaper’s instructions, Ril summons imps and starts to expand his dungeon. By creating the Library he gets his hands on a crystal ball that can supposedly connect him to a "Underworld Broker" that could help him in his time of plight. Ril contacts Necodemus Abraxe (called Steve), a merchant of dubious morals.

But the magic book he ordered from the merchant arrives too late. Ril does not manage to learn the spell he needed in time and his allies succumb to their wounds.

### - Day 3:

Thanks to the imps quick digging making their graves was almost depressingly simple. Ril was now alone with the Horned Reaper and the imps which were under his command. He could not give them a proper burial but he had hoped that what little he could do would at least help them be put to rest.

But, for better or for worse, he had no time to stay put. What food he ordered from Steve (as one of his dying comrades named him jokingly before passing away) would keep him going for a while. His conversation with the Reaper let him understand the weight of the cursed power he now had and firmly made him aware that since he wanted to be free of it - there would be a lot of work ahead.

### - Day 4:

While expanding the dungeon even further, Ril finds a portal leading into the Underworld as well as the hidden storage holding Kalandra, an awakened, self-aware construct modeled after a beautiful woman and trained in the arts of assassination, and Thomas Garl, the talking skull that is all that remains of the former head warlock of Keeper Jarlwick. Ril takes them both into his service after quite a long discussion. After that Kalandra uses the newly dug tunnel to the surface to exit the Dungeon and goes to explore nearby village of Sunny Brook, buying some food and tobacco on the way back.

### - Day 6:

The wandering martial artist and hero of the Light Hongshir follows rumors that lead him to Ril’s dungeon. Instead of fighting the young Keeper, he joins him as moral guardian. The two coming to an agreement that, if the young man ever gives in to evil, Hongshir would be the one to strike him down.

### - Day 8:

A meeting is held in order to determine how to handle the corruption being leaked from the Dungeon Heart. A trial to contain the corruption in a single room by anchoring it into a single plant seed (with a hope that all of the corruption will "stick" to the living creature) ends in a near catastrophic burst of energy being averted and Ril being banned from ever preforming magical research on his own when he is sleep deprived,

But feeling responsible for the seeds he has planted Ril begins to take care of them with (a week later) one flower finally sprouting from the ground. This is is the birth of Ril's Garden.

## ***Challenging a Keeper***

### - Day 14:

Quite a bit of time has passed and The Party has slowly been getting used to their new environment (if you can consider causing unnatural weather phenomena and almost blowing themselves up as "getting used to" their new environment), but that illusion of peace is soon sent into disarray as Kalandra and Hongshir visit Sunny Brook and hear rumors about orcs. They set out to follow their trail the day after.

The orcs lead Kalandra and Hongshir directly to Mordred’s new dungeon, arriving in about 5 days. Because the orcs were wounded it took them longer to get to Mordreds Dungeon then it took Kalandra and Hongshir to return, and they arrive home in ~2 days time. In the meantime Ril experiments with the corruption effects and creates the Plant. He also creates a blade infused with the Dark God’s evil magic he calls Ash.

After their return a meeting is held on how they should proceed, The Party knew that if they want to find out about the method to create Dungeon Hearts (and thus take a step in the direction of understanding how to free Ril from his) they had to invade Mordred’s dungeon. Not only that but none of them were at all keen on the idea of letting Mordred build up his strength once more and threaten Albion (albeit that everybody but Thomas was more worried about the people of the land, where as he just wanted to defeat the enemy Keeper while he was still weak).

### - Day 22, three days after their return:

Their preparations for their raid complete The Party sets off to invade Mordred’s dungeon, refusing to allow him to stay at large and threaten Albion in the future. With Thomas giving them support from their base and the Horned Reaper as their vanguard they manage to force the enemy Keeper into submission. He is taken prisoner and “kindly asked” to share his secrets with Ril.

At night, Hongshir sneaks into Mordred's cell and confronts both the villain and his own past.

### -Day 23:

Ril takes care of the surviving orcs, treating them medically and sends them off to the Underworld.

Kalandra, being placed on guard duty Mordred's Dungeon Heart (ready to pierce it at the slightest sign of trouble) and lacking much else to do “censors” Mordred's more unpleasant books.

After noticing that their prisoner is playing them for fools The Party decides to take more drastic measures. Using the Minion Bond and Possession Ril invades Mordred’s mind and forces the more experienced Keeper to spill his secrets. The vicious prodding leaves it's marks on both Ril and Mordred, leaving the former with a copy of Mordred's memories and the latter mentally scared by the experience.

Ril, despite now becoming aware of exactly what being a Dungeon Keeper truly means, decides to be the better man and drops the wanted criminal off (face first) to the guards of Evercalm.

### - Day 24:

Mordred's Dungeon Heart stops beating. A scrying spell revels a already burnt down pyre at Evercalm, there could be no doubt that he met his end at the stake. Mixed emotions fill both Hongshir and Ril as the realization finally sets in. With this - Mordred is no more.

## ***Settling down***

### -The first recruits:

Ril makes a bond with their newly acquired Dungeon Heart and The Party begins to move to the newly conquered dungeon and rearrange the layout. For the next two weeks or so they expand and prepare their new home.

But, due to the realization of their Keeper that in the past month he has only been outside for picking people up and dropping them off, the feelings of wanting to actually get some fresh air overwhelmed him leading The Party to the only logical conclusion - it's time for a picnic.

This idea goes about as well as anybody who has some sense for universal irony would think, goblins attempt to preform an ambush within minutes of setting a table in the mist outside of the Dungeon. But it does not exactly go as they expected, a few words from The Party and not only does the ambush fail but the goblins also get bought with food to join. With that, a clan of Goblins has joined the Dungeon.

### - The first trip into the Underworld:

Although some felt quite comfortable with this new hire, Thomas Garl made it painfully clear that one clan of Goblins does not make a Dungeon - The Party must now go to the Underworld on their first recruitment drive.

The trip went quite well actually, The Party got attacked along the way only once (the Bile Demon and his minions regretted that very quickly. Though it took a few days to completely wash off the smell) and there was only one casualty during the actual recruitment (ok - that was not our fault. The old warlock started it and the city guards have a very strict "one strike = bolt to the eye" policy). But once we finished all our business we came back to our Dungeon along with our newly recruited minions: orcs, dark elves, trolls, humans and goblins. Our shopping trip was also fruitful, we got our hands on: supplies (we can finally stop eating chicken and chicken byproducts), fabrics, hero’s journals, books, some magic items,..

### - The first trip to the city of Evercalm:

The next day Kalandra and Hongshir visit the town of Evercalm to gather information.

They strike gold as they find out some rather disturbing news. A priest, accompanied by a handful of adventurers, has been sent to investigate rumors of strange phenomena near Sunny Brook. They are due to arrive there in 2 to 3 days and, should they get (un)lucky, they will stumble upon an inactive Dungeon Heart.

Also, what idea we had of having our minions do adventurer work as a secondary source of income had gone down in flames as Baron Leopold has traveled back to his home castle. The militia's camp now disbanded, everything is quiet in town. Not even cats need to be rescued from trees.

After learning what they could they go to fulfill their secondary objective, they order a map of Albion at the local scribe, to be collected the next day.

But Hongshir gets involved in trouble.

Hongshir is greeted by a nosy guy who not only is well informed but bothers him with with dangerous questions. To this, the martial artist responds with an attempt at knocking him out. But things to not go as planed as his target turns out to be more nimble then expected. He manages to avoid getting decked and tries to flee (although it cost him a broken nose). A short time later Kalandra and Hongshir chase the rogue through the back alleys and over the rooftops of Evercalm. The chase ends with the guy disappearing into the pub and Hongshir in jail for attempted burglary.

Meanwhile, back at the dungeon, Ril had to reign in the two rivaling goblin clans whose verbal confrontations escalated into an all out foodfight. Instead of having them fight each other, he managed to  turn their rivalry into a more productive competition.

But somehow, he feels as though somewhere - someone - just his once had even less luck then he did.

Later when Kalandra reports what happened in the city he confirms this suspicion to be true. She asks the young Keeper to let them handle the issue.

So, as a matter of course while a a part of The Party is in a tough situation that could end with their collective doom, a Cooking competition to determine who will be in charge of meals is held. Clan Matron Brugly becomes head of kitchen after a fierce culinary battle.

Thomas, not being all that enthusiastic about watching other people eat, re-installs and reactivates the lethal traps at the abandoned dungeon near Sunny Brook and in the afternoon he uses a ritual to identify if his assistant Lucy has any special magical affinity. The result is positive up inconclusive, while she does have an affinity towards magic exactly what it is remains unknown. Later, he picks a fight with Ril and sets fire to a carpet in what is referred to as "the bowling incident", summarily getting himself teleported onto a pillar in the Horned Reaper’s room as a time out.

Hongshir is waiting patiently in jail.

Kalandra has a more civilized talk with the mysterious guy. He offers to trade information and gives a warning for free: If the scouting party should find anything suspicious, Baron Leopold can be there with his army in two weeks time. The collects her map. In the late afternoon she visits the temple of the Light. She can feel the holy, warm aura of the place but simultaneously has the feeling to be not welcome here. An irrational flight reflex makes her want to leave, but she can suppress it. The depiction at the windows of dragons fighting alongside angels against demons fascinate her. To her knowledge dragons are greedy and selfish creatures that often fight for the dark side.

In the early evening she has another encounter with the mysterious guy (who introduces himself as Jared). He pries even deeper into her secrets until she admits that she belongs to the mysterious group who has brought down Mordred. After that he agrees to help her get Hongshir out of jail. Five minutes later, the martial artist is free to go. Kalandra invites Jared to dinner. After conferring with Ril, she meets Jared at the inn, arranges for the food to be brought to her room and all four of them have a long and interesting conversation. In the end Jared tags along uninvited when Ril teleports out of there.

In their panic they knock Jared out just to accept him as a minion later that day nevertheless. After a very enthusiastic tour of their Dungeon (during which Jared could not stop inquiring about every single small detail about everything he saw) Jared enters our employ

As icing on the cake, when they returned Jared to his room at the inn Hongshir spills the secret of Ril’s true identity which leads to Jared telling them that the young Dungeon Keeper is now a wanted criminal accused of deserting the army in addition to the petty crimes he had already committed before. The squire Argenta in particular seems to harbor a special hatred for the deserters, not knowing that all but one of them are already dead, killed by a demon.

With that Jared is left in Evercalm with the promise to keep his eyes and ears open, diffuse any rumors and erase the trails the group has left in Evercalm and investigate the things Ril asked him to and prepare a report every week.

Ril is conducting magical research, trying to create disenchanting water. His first attempts of random trial and error and not only fruitless but also very risky. After the second spell explodes in his face and he has his own hair turned purple, he decides to use another approach. In refers to his books just to find a reference to another text not in his possession.

In the evening Hongshir gives his first lesson in combat training. One particularly brash and power hungry orc challenges him, hoping for a promotion by showing his worth, but is bested and humiliated by Hongshir who doesn’t even require weapons.

### - Methinks the Keeper is mad:

The next morning, Hongshir is “kindly asked” to show the minions how to fight a demon (as punishment for revealing Ril's identity - **again**). This demonstration quickly derails and escalates as the Horned Reaper ignores all orders and goes on a wild rampage. Kalandra and Ril have to teleport in, stop the demon and heal the wounded. They are lucky there were no deaths as the Reaper could have easily eradicated the entire force of dark elves and goblins. Ril gets mad. **A lot**. The kind of mad where he does not raise his voice but everybody in the room is getting goosebumps. He promises to “deal” with the Horned Reapers boredom after dinner and orders Hongshir to visit the wounded once they wake up. The wounded find the visit suspiciously “kind” (something Keepers are not known for) and stay on their toes.

After all of the ruckus calmed down, The Party went back to checking up on the scouting party sent from Evercalm. The crystal ball revealed that they were asking around in Sunny Brook. Amongst other things they are chatting with the farmer’s wife that has welcomed Kalandra on her first visit in the village. After lunch they collect their weapons and head out into the woods, looking for signs for the presence of Evil. Ril keeps his eyes on them for the bulk of the day, reading and practising magic when things get really boring. The party finds nothing and goes back to town in the evening.

Then as promised earlier in the day, Ril turns off the Dungeon Heart’s mana use for everything but the light in the Horned Reapers throne room and channels it all into himself as well as primes all of his own magic (witness accounts claim that Ril seemed to give off an aura of magic which was almost solid Nightmare Fuel). After a bout with the Horned Reaper that lasted quite some time Ril promises Horny that soon enough he will be enough to keep him “entertained” and tells him that if he ever goes out of control like that again he would lock Horney up so that 250 years of boredom would seem pleasant. But, possibly to Ril’s natural bad luck, the Horned Reaper does not take those words to heart. The minions are awestruck at the spectacle.

### - When did destroying Dungeon Hearts become our job?

Ril is kicked out of bed by Kalandra at his own request. The bout from the day before had certainly taken it’s toll on him. After breakfast and tending to his Flower, Ril continues to observe the adventurers through the crystal ball, only to turn it off as soon as he noticed that the female member was changing her clothes. After a few minutes his blush wore off and he turned the crystal ball back on. Luckely no one was there to see that...

Morning training turns rough as one of the orcs has the misfortune to catch Kalandra in a bad mood. After reading some very old journals she found an entry about focused around a terrifying construct performing evil deeds at the orders of a Dungeon Keeper (a “no survivors” attack on a village to be precise). Kalandra identified herself as one the construct in question, haunted by her past she tried to take out her messy emotional state in the practise room before the orc in question drew the short end of the stick and became her practise dumm….her practice partner. Hongshir tries to talk to her and calm her down, he also gives the orc a day to rest. Kalandra then goes wild in the exercise rooms where she meets (and has a bout with) the Horned Reaper. The minions are awestruck at the spectacle.

Later that day, the tension rises as the adventurers (after what seemed like an eternity to those who had to observe them) finally find the entrance to the former Dungeon. After a tense while watching them Kalandra, Hongshir and Ril breathe a sigh of relief when the party manages to somehow not get themselves killed on the traps Thomas had reactivated.

But the plan hits a snag as Ril begins to feel very insecure about the fact that the adventuring party did not plan to immediately deal with the heart but instead seemed like they were going to send a report and wait for further orders. One adventurer (the warrior) was glancing at the Heart so much that even Kalandra and Hongshir started to believe in Ril's unhealthy paranoia. After a cloak and a mask were donned and Ril's magic was suppressed as best he could manage, Kalandra and Ril teleport before the exit of the cave under the pretense of being “Merlin and his assistant, here to destroy the Heart Mordred left behind”. The adventurers demand that no such action be taken, as they have orders to not destroy the relic without permission.

Merlin then shared some wisdom with them: “Sometimes it’s easier to ask for forgiveness then to ask for permission. So….. sorry.”. One teleport and Armored Fist punch later and the former Dungeon Heart was no more. Kalandra and Ril teleport back to the Dungeon without giving the adventurers enough time to even get back into the Heart Chamber. After returning they take one final look through the crystal ball and see that the party sent some form of mechanical messenger birdy, probably to their superiors.

### - Some information would be great:

Seeing as the Dungeon now has more people in it (and thus more expences) and that they had a superb lack of knowledge of what was going on in the outside world The Party decided to kill two birds with one stone. Kalandra and Hongshir decide to exploit their battle talents and go bounty hunting. They learn that Ril and his former companions are wanted criminals. All other bounties are not high enough to make a difference in the Dungeon’s treasury. So that did not help all that much...

"Well" - they thought - "If topside did not give us any usefull information, might as well check the Underworld..."

So, following that decision,
Kalandra an Hongshir visit the Underworld with some orcs as bodyguards. Asking around in the pubs and bars they learn a lot about the orcish culture and life in the underworld but also about other Keepers.

Today Kalandra and Hongshir went to the orcish city fortress above the lave lake in the Underworld and they have learned a lot. By visiting the pubs and talking to the (former) employees of other Keepers they got a pretty good picture of the who is who in the Underworld. Among other things Kalandra recognized the names of two Keepers who are still alive, even after over 250 years.

* One is Aphel, a follower of the Mighty Tyrant and caretaker of the dark god's favorite pet: the eldest dragon. This veteran seems to have risen to such a position that nobody dares to challenge him.
* The second one is Malleus, who is living below a desert. He was worshipping Mordrul the Devourer, but as things are, this god was defeated and eaten by none other than the Mighty Tyrant (talk about irony). Without his patron Malleus has decided to simply lay low and wait for a better time. He has turned his last remaining dungeon into a single death trap so hopefully nobody would waste the resources to seek him out.

Hongshir was the one who overheard the news that three Keepers have suddenly changed their strategy during the last month. They are now hiring lots of new minions for a great project and there is lots of speculation what they might have in mind as there is no obvious target in sight. To Hongshir it sounded like they are secretly preparing to invade Albion. He got the names of the three Keepers and also a bit about their reputation.

* 1st: Galakatath:  He is supposed to be a vain, perverse, sadistic and fairly dull-witted Keeper who serves Azzathra. He is tall with a heavily muscled body he likes to show off. Only hires females.

* 2nd: Grasthurasa: A spiteful and mean Keeper who has out-performed her enemies more often than not. Has been fighting against Mordred before he disappeared.

* 3rd. Sooloavelli: A dark elf and former minion of Grasthurasa who got promoted to Subordinate Keeper by his mistress to perform all the tasks she considers too risky to do herself. Somehow he has managed to stay alive despite that.

And when Kalandra was asking questions about other Keepers she remembers from her time, one conversation in particular was of special interest:

"Mukrezar? Yes, we all remember Mukrezar. And we all remember what he had to do to take the Avatar down, don't we?" the orc hummed as he took another sip from his stale beer.

"Never was good with history. How did he beat the Avatar?"

"Threw troops at him until the death toll was high enough to consecrate the area to Crowned Death and do a ritual to make his powers gutter out. "

"F\*\*k."

...

"So where is he now?"

"Who, Mukrezar? Either still on Avatar Island or dead. Probably both."

"Huh? How did that happen?"

"Dunno. Someone decided that he had become too powerful. Closed the portals behind him. Trapped him on the Island. And with the Sea Blockade still going on, nothing is going to escape anytime soon. But they say there is nothing left alive there any more anyway. Corruption turned it into a single wasteland. With nothing to eat. All this talking made he thirsty. You pay the next drink!"

After some more probing it became evident that the conquest of Avatar Island and the fall of the Avatar of the Light took place about eight to ten years ago. This is about all that is known about the whereabouts of the supposedly greatest Dungeon Keeper and the Champion of the Light.

After they got back Kalandra, following a hunch, decides to inspect the ship Mordred used to journey through the fog to Albion. It is big enough to transport a Dungeon Heart and a small army of orcs, goblins and ogres. Somehow Mordred has managed to move the active Heart from the ship’s hold on land to build his first Dungeon around it - the one that got conquered by Baron Leopold.

A small tent village has grown on the shore close to the ship. Craftsmen and shipwrights are studying the construct under the supervision of an envoy of the Baron. Sneaking through the camp when everyone is sleeping Kalandra finds a letter that states that the camp has been here for a couple of weeks. Everything strange or noteworthy found on the ship has been taken to the Baron’s city to be studied by experts and destroyed if necessary.

In a mix of rational thought and more emotion then she would like to admit, Kalandra leaves as she sets the ship on fire. After making sure that nobody will get hurt of course.

### - The mysterious island of giant plants?:

It was a few days later that Ril, amidst his now stacked shelves of journals that once belonged to adventurers from the world over, that he spotted a peculiar passage pertaining to a island deep inside the mists of Albion. The problem was that this island was **most certainly not** Ril's homeland. The place that was described was a scene straight out of a fantasy; with beasts the size of houses and trees the size of mountains. But if such a place really existed then it most certainly would be filled with untapped resources and magic. It could even give them the edge in the fight against the Keepers that were supposedly planing to invade.

Later Ril decides to go to a small village at the south shore of Albion to investigate. And indeed, there were new, uncommon plants and strange artifacts have been washed on shore, hinting at another island. This theory was further backed by local legends about a wondrous land full of strange, giant plants, dense forests and even stranger inhabitants.

## ***The exploration of Nakiridaani***

### - Setting off and danger right off the bat:

The expedition begins! After leaving Thomas Garl in charge of the Dungeon and the minions with standing orders (including, but not limited to, asking Lucy to water Ril’s flower) The Party sets out on their voyage! With the newly recruited shark minions being used to maintain their course, The Party successfully traversed the Mist and reaches the mysterious island south-west of Albion (Kalandra however, had a bad feeling the whole way there, feeling something watching the Party from within the Mist).

After arriving on the island the party anchored their boat and left the sharks to guard it. Ril, Kalandra and Hongshir then began to explore the new (and quite lively) land, encountering never before seen lifeforms and plant life.

But, as The Party soon discovered, the giant bipedal predators that reside on top of the local food chain were less than friendly and it took a solid amount of luck and skill to avoid attracting their attention. Luckily they had both……...till night came.

After all, how was poor Ril supposed to know that the cave he thought was a good place to rest was actually a den for one of those very fierce predators?

The Party (or at least the part of it that needed sleep) only managed to rest a few hours before the caves owner came back and discovered that several pests had made their way into it’s home. And, like most home owners would, it took offence to that. Unfortunately for it though, these pests were a resilient sort and a few hits, bashes and gashes later the beast found itself bleeding and chained up the the cold stone floor. Luckily for it however, the head-pest had a longstanding streak of naivety. After they closed the beast's wounds with a quick application of Flesh Manipulation magic, our trio set off to continue their journey.

### - The Iskai’i people:

For the bulk of the next day The Party made its way due south, battling only fierce overgrowth that made the walk somewhat difficult, that was however, until they found a road. Though calling it a road may have been an overstatement. It most certainly was a road at some point in time and, judging by the fact that said road barely had any less plant life sticking out of it, that time was long ago. But it was a start.

After trudging atop the most poorly maintained feat of engineering some of them had seen in their lives, they eventually found a fork in the path and (in a rare stroke of good fortune) chose the road that led towards a strange clearing, unnaturally void of the local enormous plant life. As it turned out, this clearing was in fact the surroundings of a city that was home to the native, cat like race known as the Iskai’i.

Thankfully, in yet another rare stroke of fortune, the natives were peaceful. And while even the most seasoned traveler in the party, Hongshir, was unable to understand their language it appeared that “Take me to your leader” was something that is universally understood in in these kinds of situations. And so, The Party met the Iskai’i elder: Karam.

Thanks to the fact that the elder spoke the same language as The Party the discussion went by fast. The Party learned about the island Nakiridaani, and about the Iskai’i culture and magic. It was then The Party learned about the Dji’Kas, who were the equivalent of mages on the island, that used mystical seeds as catalysts to cast magic and the Dji’Fah, the formers of the city whose magic taped into the power of Gaia (the natural force that flowed through all living things on the island and was venerated as the source of all life) in order to shape the plants which the entire city was made off. But, to the dismay of Hongshir, The Party also learned about a Rite that was used in order to give certain Iskai’i quasi-immortality.

At that point it was also noted that all the creatures The Party had encountered on this island had a crystal-like structure growing on their foreheads, called Trii. This organ allows them a minor form of telepathy when two touch their Tri's. But if one of the two Iskai’i connected that way was a newborn, the contact would have drastic consequences. The mind of the older Iskai’i will be transferred into the body of the newborn, overwriting anything already existing there. After the transfer the body of the older Iskai’i will die.

To prevent abuse of this ability only a selected few individuals are granted permission to perform this most holy Rite under strict controls, usually using their own offspring as their new host. Performing the Rite without permission is considered the greatest crime. Nevertheless the devout Hongshir did not approve of this.

However, Kalandra somehow managed to soothe Hongshir and resolve moral dilemma.

“Only the best of them are allowed to perform the Rite and only with permission of the entire Council of their Elders. Moreover, the baby is not killed in it, its soul merely unifies with the one performing the Rite. It lives on.”

A rather emphatic speech considering the one making it is has trouble understanding the human heart.

### - The Legacy of Argim:

They took to exploring the city (in the company of a guide, an officer within the city named Drirr) so it did not actually take long before The Party learned of the abandoned building of the Dji’Fah and old Argim’s Folly.

According to the history books he was the ambitious the leader of the Dji’Fah over a hundred years ago. He has dreamt of prolonging his life but was denied the privilege to perform Rite again and again until he claimed that he would find his own way to find immortality and shut himself inside his study never to leave it again. But his experiments went awry and "something" happened. The building changed and was abandoned shortly after. Supposedly his ghost still haunts the place.

But the information was a good lead. Agrim sounded like an quite an expert in magic that manipulated Life Force, a field of study which would be necessary in order to advance the research on the Holy Heart. With that as a start The Party began asking questions, eventually meeting the young female Dji'Kas mage Sirra (who volunteered to help them when they go exploring the former guild site) and gaining permission from Karam to perform their expedition.

Drirr joins the Party. Sirra joins the Party. Together they explore the abandoned building far away from the city.

They overcome obstacles like the beasts living inside the abandoned building and the man eating plants that they named “Star Maws” due to their enormous mouths and glowing later like flowers (which they used to attract prey). They also find a locked metal chest on the first floor (which was unusual as objects made of metal were rare and valuable on Nakiridaani). Deciding to leave the chest and examine its contents later (hey, it was not going anywhere any time soon) they headed down into the basement levels where they came face to face with “Mega-Maws”, a much larger and more dangerous variety of Star Maw.

But it was one they finally got passed them that The Party found something truly shocking.

They find a place vibrant with life and, to their disbelief, an actual physical manifestation of life energy on the deepest levels of this place. They also discover a crystalline structure that looks like a human-sized Trii. Ril suffers from phycho-magical overload when he touches it to use his Analysis magic ability as an old and very powerful mind threatens to crush his own. The strength and complexity of the magic inhabiting the structure overwhelming him and sending him flying back.

Sirra on the other hand seems fine when she touches the enormous Trii. After a short but deep mental contact Sirra explains that this is what is left of old Argim. He has traded his physical existence to become one with the place and every living being inhabiting it.

Seeing as they were unable to discover anything further and as this was something that the council of Elders would wish to be informed of immediately, The Party decides to they leave the building and head back to the city. But before they leave they open the chest they found earlier, finding Argim’s personal research notes. Each fragile old page was worth as much as gold to the eyes of everybody there, for some it was because of a historical significance but for others it was hope. Argim's research held the theoretical foundations to combining the Arcane and magic which manipulated Life energies - the key to making the Holy Heart.

Because they don’t want to risk carrying the heavy chest all the way back to the city and over a unstable bridge, they send Hongshir to get help. He returns with Arkiir, the current leader of the Dji'Fah and a couple of Iskai’i. A heaty discussion between Akiir and Sirra about what should happen to the notes as Akiir strongly opposes Ril’s request to study them. To persuade Akiir to believe his story about a potential invasion Ril unleashes as much magic energy as he can (under the pretense of “I have been cursed with but a fragment of their power and the ones who will come will have much more.. Etc etc”). But due to the overload he suffered earlier he nearly loses control. A black vortex of energy whirls around his body uprooting trees. Eventually he manages to channel the mana into a single spell unleash a Red Wave into the sky that can be seen and felt from far away. Ril falls unconscious afterwards.

### - Farewell, Nakiridaani!:

Back in Jirinai, the grown city, the council is called together to debate about the latest events and to decide the fate of Ril and his companions. After they agree to a mind screening by a trained telepath, they are able to convince the council of their good intentions.

A week passes where Ril recovers from his mental wounds and exchanges knowledge of magic theory with Sirra. Hongshir studies the language of the Iskai’i.

Before they leave, seeing as the Council will not let them see the notes any time soon (and they need the knowledge urgently) they once again visit old Argim and ask him to share his knowledge with Sirra. Ril’s plan to listen in on this conversation by inhibiting Sirra’s mind after he made her his minion fails as old Argim gives him the mental equivalent of "the boot". But he does agree to share what he knows with Sirra who, after gaining her bearings after a long mental discussion only she and Argim were aware of. claims that she now possesses Argim’s secrets.

Together with Sirra, who decides to come under Ril's employ in order to see more of the world and help them in their quest, joins The Party as they leave Nakiridaani. The journey back is harder as the fog plays tricks on their sense of direction and especially Ril’s feeling for his connection to his Heart. Nevertheless (and a bit of panic later) they reach the shore of Albion after two days on sea.

## ***The Pre-Invasion***

### - No rest for The Party, Hongshir makes the bond:

Back at the dungeon Hongshir and Ril are greeted by Thomas Garl who had been tasked with managing the Dungeon during its Keeper’s absence. Quite successfully so, as he has appointed some of the more experienced minions to become group leaders and corporals. Production of proper (but still average) equipment for the military forces has progressed well, the financial status is low but stable and the moral amongst the minions is good. Just the Horned Reaper is getting impatient and lusting for battle.

Ril contacts Valna and her group of dark elves in the underworld and picks them up. To his surprise they have two new recruits with them: Herveus the Resilient, an undead knight and the vampire Shambles, who calls himself a count.

Ril also realizes, to his misfortune, that the delays they suffered recuperating on the island and the very long trip back has caused him to miss his audience with Baron Leopold. After a brief meeting with Jared, Ril asks for another appointment.

Sirra is given a place to stay and her own laboratory, though it does take her quite a while to acclimate to living underground.

A strategy meeting is called to discuss possible measures to fight back the impending invasion. Many suggestions are made, but for most of the more convoluted plans, magical research is necessary. Amongst them are:

* Fire magically propelled torpedoes at approaching ships.

* Cast Water Walk on the Horned Reaper and have him attack approaching ships.

* Drop rocks on approaching ships.

* etc.

But Ril soon realizes that he has to locate any approaching ships in time to execute any of these plans and begins to scry the entire coastline of Albion in regular intervals, which drastically cuts into his schedule as he’d have to do this near constantly.

And thus began the Dungeons first joint magical research project: a telecommunication spell. Because there is no ready spell in his library it is up to The Party to create their own. Ril begins by analyzing the Scavenger Room, which allows magical (and creepy as all hell) eye-stalks to whisper promises and temptations into the ears of enemies. After a couple of days and the sacrifice of many chickens (IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE) Thomas, Shambles and Ril manage to reverse engineer the spell that is used to enchant the slimy giant eyeballs of the room and modifies it so that it can use any living eyeball as a focal point. Then the person who wants to send a telepathic message just needs to touch the enchanted eyeball. As far as Ril can tell, this spell is harmless.

During these days, Herveus and Hongshir are cooperating in their efforts to bring the troops up to shape. While the martial artist trains them in general fitness and individual fighting forms, the fallen knight instructs them in group tactics and formations.

Mainly the goblins are taught how to use spears while the orcs take to their familiar heavy axes, hammers and shields. The training of shield wall, phalanx and spear formations progresses smoothly after the knight has shown a defiant orc sergeant who is boss.

Soon the meeting with Baron Leopold approaches and, to Ril’s surprise, Hongshir suggests that he enlists as a minion. A big decision for the martial artist, as this means he has finally put all his trust in the young Keeper.

### - The meeting with the Baron:

After completing their preparations (Ril disguises himself as Merlin the Grey and grabs some pralines as gifts, Hongshir takes some books containing the mainland’s church’s view and teachings about keepers and dungeon hearts with them) the two go off to meet the Baron in the city of Yellowfield.

Once they arrive escorted to the baron’s meeting room where is surrounded by a group of advisers:

Abbot Durval of the Holy Church of the Light is old, if not ancient. Still he wears his habit proud and regally. He is accompanied by one assistant.

Court Magician Dumat projects an aura of power few people have. While he, too, has reached the age where most people think of retirement, his intelligent eyes still shine brightly. He too has brought one assistant.

Three men in expensive clothes, one thin, one average and one fat, were not formally introduced.

Finally Baron Leopold himself, this time out of his armor, still is an imposing figure. He wears his enormous grey mustache with pride and his booming voice is made to shout commands. Even if he may be past his prime, Ril and Hongshir both have witnessed how he has fearlessly fought and defeated one of Mordred’s ogres in single combat two months ago.

All of them take the news of more Keepers approaching badly, one of the advisers even calls Merlin a liar. When Merlin mentions the Underworld and the portals, Durval is instantly interested and asks question after question. When his curiosity is sated he promises to have every known portal deactivated. He also let slip that he has been trying to scry on Merlin unsuccessfully when he was gone.

The discussion that followed went about as well as one could expect. The Men at the table did not trust Merlin nor did they attempt to hide it. Abbot Durval even went as fat as to "perform a test". He got close to the mysterious magician and performed a holy spell that made his hand glow in a warm golden light. Through almost sheer luck, Ril does not show any outward sign that the presence of holy energy, which would normally feel uncomfortable to him and trigger a flight reflex (a side effect of becoming a Keeper that, even he himself, was not aware of till now.). Instead, in his panic, he is frozen in place. The rendered Durval speechless and he returned to his seat and remained silent for the rest of the audience.

They questioned Merlin about his motives for destroying the Dungeon Heart near Sunny Brook and interfering with official business. They also attempt to pry into his past - but to no avail. Ril and Hongshir fed them a "we destroyed the Heart for your own good" line which did rub them the wrong way, but after Hongshir gave them his book on Dungeon Hearts they swallowed their resentment - at least for the time being.

### - Moments before the assault:

When they came back they immediately went to their respective posts. Everybody in the Dungeon was on alert and was waiting for the enemy to come. People had been posted all around Albion's coast and were monitoring the mist 24/7. Meanwhile at the Dungeon all of the Departments were working overtime.

The Defense Department was training (with the aid of Hongshir and Kalandra).

The Magic Department was researching creating *Red Wave* seals that they could use to propel spikes that would pierce the enemy ships form bellow (a form of torpedo that propelled itself on a steam explosion).

The Crafting Department was creating a siege weapon (a barista and bolts for it) and setting up defenses in and around the Dungeon (with the aid of Herveus).

All the while the commanders (The Party) were doing their own individual preparations and holding strategy meetings to discuss how to repel the enemies. some time over two weeks past like that and then, in the middle of the night...a sentry sent a message: "there is thunder coming from within the mist".

## *The Invasion:*

### - The battle over the sea:

The booms of the bell echoed throughout the Dungeon to signal everybody to get to their battle stations. The month long tension payed off, as all it took were a few minutes for almost the entire Defense Department (with the exceptions of the two Goblin tribes and Kalandra who stayed to guard the Dungeon) to be on the east shore of Albion setting up traps and preparing for the enemies landing party. With Thomas, Sirra and Shambles providing support form a large scrying mirror that was set up in the war room of the Dungeon (idea ~~stolen~~ gotten courtesy of the Institute of Higher Learning) The Party consisting of Herveus, Hongshir, Merlin and the Horned Reaper began moving to intercept the enemy atop a enormous flying metal gauntlet.

Unlike what they were expecting, based on their scouts reports and what they thought they saw from the shore, there were no dragons attacking the ships (much to Horny's displeasure). In fact, another unexpected factor appeared - the three warships were manned in part by slaves from Zyreema. This sent all the plans The Party had made earlier into disarray as they could no longer fight freely (and sink the ships from a safe distance) if they valued the lives of the unfortunate hostages. They decided to take a more direct approach, storm the ship and take the enemy Keeper hostage. All of the non-slave crew were female orcs and dark elves which screamed that this was Keeper Galakatath's force and it did not take a genius to figure out where he could be, the Keeper known for his vanity and bad temper spared no expense in decorating his flagship to be as imposing as possible.

And so, with haste as their intent, The Party leapt into action. Horny was ceremonially let loose as the vanguard with Hongshir and Herveus close behind him to ensure that the slaves were not harmed in the crossfire. Meanwhile Ril took to the waters possessing the body of one of his his shark minions with the full intent of stopping the enemy's advance.

That night, the villagers living near the shores claimed to have heard the sounds of clashing metal and screaming men all the way from the horizon with occasional flashes of red and blue light. The screams, they said, were bone chilling.

The battle over the sea concluded with no side claiming victory over the other but The Party most certainly felt like they had lost. While Hongshir and Horny managed to avoid major injuries (although it would be a long time before Ril would let Horny forget that he was turned into a giant red chicken midway trough the battle) Ril had overexerted himself magically and Herveus had one of his arms taken clean off by Galakatath's she-monster of an orc Genral: Grunka. And those were only wounds to their bodies, their spirits had taken a much more serious blow.

They could not prevent a large amount of the slaves from getting caught up in the battle. While they did manage to save many and even to capture a large amount of enemies the lives lost had almost equaled that. They had underestimated the cruelty of their enemy and the depth of his spite, Galakatath had no qualms of turning both magic and arrow on his own flagship and his own soldiers once it was no longer of use to him. The once imposing vessel slowly sank into the dark waters and it's debris now served as rafts for those who remained to rest their weary bodies and minds.

But the battle was not over.

### - The battle on the shore:

Their plan to intercept the enemy had failed, but The Party was not just about to give up. Now was the time for a counter attack. Herveus and Hongshir were sent to the shore, rallying the troops and getting them into ambush positions all the while ~~chasing~~ evacuating local villagers out of a nearby settlement so they wouldn't get caught up in the confrontation. To make sure they had the time to do all of this, Ril aided his companions by stalling the oncoming ships by harassing them using his Keeper Magic. Soon, the stage had been for their final confrontation with the Keeper Galakatath and his invasion force.

The confrontation was fierce, the sounds of battle tearing trough the otherwise silent night. But luckily for The Party their enemy was the sort to get easily enraged and, after his failed attempt at provoking the Keeper Merlin via crystal ball, had his forces charge blindly forward - causing them to fall The Party's traps one after another.

But even then, The Party was shocked by the sheer tenacity of Galakatath's forces. The presence of his General, a monster of a female orc named Grunka, kept all of his army in line and constantly moving forward (even over the bodies of their allies). Such was the ferocity of his General that, if it was not for the timely rescue by Herveus, Ril would have likely been slain then and there.

Luckily for Ril, he had made the right choice of who he made his allies. If a bard was present for the battle he would have had the material to forge a new legend, trough the leadership and combat prowess of Hongshir and Herveus The Party managed to snatch victory on the shore. The battle of the one armed Herveus with Grunka especially pushed the boundaries of what mortals should be capable of, the ground bursting apart as their weapons clashed.

And thus, the order was given to secure the defeated enemy and to treat the wounded while the officers went to preform the final push on the ships that were marooned on the shore.

### - The final push:

His ships marooned on the rocky coast and his army defeated, Galakatath could do no more then watch as Merlin, Herveus and Hongshir walked across the bow of his ship and burst straight into the captains quarters, his minions powerless to stop them.

The enemy Keeper attempted to buy time, hoping to have his minions set the ships (and thus all the slaves on them) ablaze. When the trio came in he confronted them while possessing a beautiful female and tried to start a conversation with The Party. But his plan was for naught, within mere seconds the trio had made their intentions clear, they would talk for as long as necessary - once Galakatath was safely taken as a prisoner. With a step so fast it was barely noticeable with the human eye Hongshir chopped the back of the females neck, rendering her unconscious without injury and forcing Galakatath to leave her body in the form of a black lightning bolt.

Failing to capture the enemy leader, it was now up to the trio to subdue all of his minions aboard the two ships before they could carry out their orders to sabotage the the ships and kill the slaves. Something that, albeit with some cost, they managed to preform admirably. Soon, the battle was over and the night had now finally turned silent. The shore littered with prisoners and wounded getting treatment.

It was only the approach of the Albion army that made the the forces under the command of Merlin begin their retreat. Several hundred individual teleportations later dawn had cracked - and the Invasion was over.

## *The exploration of the Silver Islands*

### - The Aftermath:

Luckily for The Party, investing in a large prison area turned out to be a very good idea. At least they had the space to hold their hundred something prisoners. But what to do with them?

Herveus readied himself for for the worst (his former employer preferred torture, her daughters also had each their own methods of exercising brutality on the helpless) but had his expectations blown out of the water when he was told that the prisoners would be treated with respect and all those that did not volunteer to join the Dungeon would be sent back into the Underworld.

During the next few days the Dungeon was busy (or at least even busier then usual). Another meeting with Baron Leopold was held and the men of the Albion Government had many questions for Melin and those who worked for him, questions they asked while treading carefully as the show of arms they made when repelling Galakatath was more then enough to put some of the Lords on edge when dealing with the mysterious wizard. But was only the tip of the iceberg, the real complications only began after that.

In order to confirm whether or not another fleet was on it's way a unit led by Kalandra and Valna was sent into the Underworld to gather information, a routine task by now. Ril would teleport the minions into their former Dungeon, supply the Portal with power and send them trough - but this time was not true to routine. With an exited yell a person came jumping trough the Portal into the Underworld right behind Ril who, panicked by the sudden appearance of someone who should not be able to appear from there (the hallway leading to the Portal in the former Dungeon was blocked off by a solid stone wall), proceeded to unleash a wave of magic in a startled reflex.

Oh boy...

It was a few hours later that the young man woke up in a stone cell guarded by a creature he only recognized from descriptions and books: and ork. A wry smile appeared on his face.

### - The man called Henry Mason:

It had been three-something weeks since Henry dashed out his family estate near Sweetwater and headed south to find the mysterious "Merlin", his journey had taken him to his alma mater and had caused him to meet the sly information broker Jared in Evercalm but, judging that he was now chating away with an orc, it was well worth it.

But to begin with, it was his uncles fault that he had to take such drastic measures as running away from home. While he was not much of a fan of "outings" and the even more dreaded "sunlight" even Henry had limits for how long he could stay cooped up in the family library. Honestly, he might be able to withstand - nay - even be comfortable with being a prisoner in his own home but when you don't add any new books or things to study for several months that is just taking it too far. Running from a nation wide man-hunt was clearly the only logical option.

And the prize and the end of his journey, meeting the famed Merlin! The Wizard who could even best the warlord Mordred! From the accounts that he was aware of the warlords magic easily surpassed countless trained wizards **put together** and he used dark magics that had never before been seen on the island and Merlin bested **him**! If Henry's hunch was right, this would probably be impossible unless the Wizard had a similar power. Something that, if it was true and he had a chance to properly study, could be the key to breaking out of the rut his research was in.

That said, nobody could find heads or tails of the Wizard despite a massive reward being offered for information on him.....and there were no clues as where one could find him.....and even if they did it was not like he had a reason to cooperate with Henry.....

Meh, things will work out somehow.

And, in some way or another, **they did!** Looks like breaking and entering in the Institute and owing his former teacher a favor was well worth it......unless this turned out to be the wrong place. But considering the tinge of Dark Energy in the air, the sounds of complaining how the people in the nearby cells been captured by the "cowardly Merlin" it did not exactly take a lot of detective work out that he had indeed been taken to the right place.

It was not long before he met with a immensely muscular foreigner and a towering skeletal knight who introduced themselves as Hongshir and Herveus.

The meeting felt more surprising for the two then it did for Henry. The young man seemed to adapt unnaturally well to his circumstances and was certainly not someone you could call "shy" by any means. Soon it felt like they were being questioned instead of them being the ones doing the questioning, But, all in all, the young mans ingenuity and knowledge was impressive. An opinion their Keeper, who met Henry shortly after, came to share. And shacking off an unsettling feeling that this man will become a ~~giant pain in the a\*\*~~ handful he offered him the Minion Contract.

Henry has joined The Party.

### - That sounds like a quest:

With Henry now wearing a "New Hire" pin on his chest, The Party (Now +1) goes to meet the most cooperative of their prisoners - a young Dark Elf female named Sonia.

Her (and Henry's) expectations of Keepers were taken for a ride as the Keeper Merlin not only offered her a job in his Dungeon but even stated that all the prisoners would be treated "humanly" and fairly. Grabbing the chase at a decent job (as well as a chance to get back at her former employer) she took Merlin's offer and gave out whatever information she had about Galakatath and his bases (which The Party later sold to Steve the Merchant for a tidy profit).

But they were soon faced with a problem - the rest of their prisoners were not so cooperative. Even with their best effort the former minions of Galakatath proved too stubborn and proud to willingly join, claiming that the Keeper Merlin was a coward and that the would sooner die then be shown pity or live with the disgrace of defeat.

This obviously caused some problems. As a response to this Ril and Thomas started preparing special contracts that would prevent the released captives from divulging information about them and would prevent them from working with a Keeper and The Party also managed to provoke the remaining orc prisoners into a mock battle. The stakes: if they win they get to leave no questions asked and if they lose they have to sign the contract and leave or join the Dungeon.

Hongshir was the representative of the Dungeon this time around and, although the female orc captain put up a hell of a fight, the martial artists neigh-superhuman skill was so overwhelming that it left everybody who was watching (who were, by that point, everybody in the Dungeon) completely speechless.

Some joined the Dungeon in awe of the great warrior, while others begrudgingly accepted the winners request and left, never to work for a Keeper again.

But there was still one more group left.

A group of Dark Elves, under the command of a captain named Venna, refused to join unless The Party proved their worth. Venna said that if they managed to heal the broken mind of Eline, the girl used as a medium for Galakatathback during the battle at the coast, within the time limit of one month - she and her sisters will pledge aligence.

Little did The Party know the trouble this particular task would get them in.

### - To the Silver isles:

As they lacked healers of any kind and the damage done to Eline proved too great for any conventional healing (especially if they intended to heal her within the 1 month time limit) The Party decided to try their luck with the elusive mystical denizens of Albion. If it was the Spirits, ancient beings that have resided on the island from time immemorial, they could probably do something. They hoped.

To this end, The Party split up. Henry went to pay a visit to his grandfather who lived in a village that still held to the Old Beliefs and Hongshir went to talk to the Abbot of Yellowfield.

Hongshir's lead takes him to a dead end for the purpose of healing Eline but it also leads him to a startling discovery. The Abbot told him that the priesthood of Albion could not assist him because they no longer have the power. As all of Albion has been cut off from the voice of The Light for so long they simply do not have anyone capable of using restoration magic of that level left.

On the other side of the island Henry's investigation manages to bare fruit. It took him a few days (and a ritual at a shrine at the west) but something, spirit or not, heard his plea and left him with a map - one that pointed The Party to "someone who could help".

With only two weeks left till their time limit was up The Party set off to the westmost point of Albion, following the map till they reached The Silver Island, a place of pilgrimage inaccessible by anything other then a monthly ferry boat. Disguising themselves as pilgrims Henry, Herveus, Hongshir, Eline and Ril set off to the island, where they found out they must pass a set of trials in order to reach the summit of the mountain (known as Misty Peak) and "The Shrine of The Spirit of The Mist" that supposedly lay there.

### - The Trials of Misty Peak:

The Mist that surrounded the mountain made it impossible to fly and since the island was "claimed territory" they also could not teleport. The Party was forced to walk, holding each others hands as they cautiously proceeded up the steep paths, relying on The Stick of Yew to guide them.

After a considerable period of time walking amidst the pure white scenery, they reached the first trial.

The narrow path they were on suddenly came to a halt. In front of them was something was something far too thin to be called a bridge. It was the equivalent of a tight rope made of stone, all that was bellow it was pure white mist of unfathomable depth. They debated whether this was earnestly a trial or just a path which fell apart due to old age and the constant battering of icy winds and rain, but to no ones surprise, the braver members of The Party all but did not hesitate at all to suggest crossing it.

It was some time later that they all found themselves on the other side, some in better condition then others, only to discover that their "unfathomably deep" chasm was actually a three foot drop to a stable platform made of stone. Ril's felt a mixture of relief and blood-boiling fury as he conjured a pair of replacement pants, the ones he wore earlier torn as he dragged his bum across the "bridge" in order to avoid getting blow away by the icy winds.

**First Trial: Clear** (at the cost of a pair of trousers)

Once again, The Party found themselves wandering seemingly endless path up the mountain for an unspecified period of time. But, as a rare stroke of fortune, just before the legs of the less athletic members of the group gave out The Party happened upon a way shrine. Ignoring the food laid out on a stone table inside the structure (as they felt that it might not be a good idea to eat said food) The Party proceed to take a break and examine one part of the shrine which had a peculiar magic circle written on the ground.

The circle war written in a kind of magic glyphs that neither Henry nor Ril (who possessed Mordred's memories) did not recognize which aroused caution from most of The Party. **Most of them.**

Despite several warnings Henry sat in the center of the circle and began to channel mana into it. It only took a few moments after it activated for Ril to figure out that the circle that had some sot of effect on the mind of the person using it - and to panic because of it. Using *Minion Possession* Ril dived into Henry's psyche hoping to undo the spell from within.

Henry could see the demon. She certainly was beautiful but he had to fulfill his duty as a knight of Albion and slay the wicked succubus. Wait. Was his name Henry or Nox?

The villagers were at fault really. If they had simply submitted to Ril like this would not be happening to them. Ril watched as the village burned, hoping they had at least stocked up enough supplies for the winter to make this raid profitable. Wait. This was not his memory. The orcs under his command called him Mordred.

Then, as the two slowly became aware of themselves they also became aware of each other. This caused the scenery to warp. The meal Nox shared in secret became a battlefield where Mordred commanded his forces. Memories, feelings and the desires of the two casters (Ril constantly attempted to "re-do" Mordred's memories in a good way while Henry wanted to "not interfere") all collided bringing the magic circle to a cataclysmic state where both of them were in danger of having their minds destroyed. But thanks to the Analysis Magic tattooed on Ril's arm he managed to grasp the circles structure and shatter the magic before it got to that point. The stone the circle was on shattered as Ril was launched out of Henry's head. With a grinding noise the solid stone wall that was on the wall nearby moved revealing a passageway.

**Second Trial: Clear** (at the cost of a possibly irreplaceable ancient magic circle)

With nowhere else to go but forward, The Party lit up a torch (and Henry used his Light spell) and entered the dark tunnel. The eerie darkness seemed to stretch on forever within the winding and uneven tunnels and if they were not careful they could easily have lost their footing. A situation they were lucky enough to avoid but, judging by the call for help, a certain young female pilgrim was not.

Without missing a beat, the party quickly proceeded to assist the young woman, who introduced herself as Aurora, and offered to take her with them for the rest of the way. It was not long after that that The Party (with the addition of Aurora being carried by Hongshir) reached the end of the tunnel. Laying their eyes on a small grassy field with another wayshrine on the other end, even more white mist........and an furious Silver Dragon.

Fortunately for awestruck Party, Herveus had experience dealing with Dragons and urgently made use of that experience to save all of their lives. With a shout that pierced even the mighty Dragons fierce roars he urged all of the people to duck and scatter, barley dodging the onslaught of the flying beast. The Dragon continued to move in and out of the mist, seemingly unaffected by its disorienting properties, swooping down at The Party with sword-like teeth and scythe-like claw. It did not take words for everyone to fully understand the situation they were in. Retreat was not an option. The field they were on gave the beast a clear advantage that it was making use of but even so if they fled into the narrow tunnel from whence they came they would have no cover what so ever and against a Dragon, a creature famed for its devastating fiery breath, that would be suicide.

They gritted their teeth and after The Party bought enough time for Hongshir to take the non-combatants (Aurora and Eline) to safety, they faced the beast with a counter attack.

And a fierce counter attack it was.

In a short span of time that seemed like an eternity for all those involved, the Dragon was subdued. Herveus stood atop the thrashing beast and with magically conjured chains wrapping around its throat and wings, held it in place. The scene seemed to be like one that would be sung in taverns. Heroes, battered and worn out by a tough battle, stood triumphant amidst the dreamlike white scenery. Certainly, the only natural way for this story to continue would be for The Party to make finish up their march and, with the example of the bravery they just shown, get their wish of restoring the damsel granted by the Spirit.

**Third Trial: Clear** (at the cost of a few rib fractures made to an unfortunate Keeper)

“Argenta! You stop this right now!!!” – An angry yell was heard from the cave behind them, the once meek pilgrim girl now stomping her way towards the Dragon.

“But Sister!” – The Dragon responded, for the very first time since its appearance making a sound other than a growl or a booming roar, in an unexpectedly young sounding voice. – “They can’t be allowed to…”

“No buts! Quit you flailing and transform right now”

“But Sis…”

“**NOW**.”

And so it did. The Party (not counting the unconscious Ril lying on the ground) could only stare in amazement as the beast shrunk and changed into the form of a silver haired child wearing armor. A child Hongshir recognized as Argenta, the squire of Baron Leopold.

“I see that an explanation is probably in order…” – The young woman said, taking of her hat and reveling her own silver colored hair.

**Third Trial: ?** (due to unexpected circumstances)

After Aurora healing the till then unconscious Ril using divine magic The Party and the two silver haired individuals set across from each other at a table at the wayshrine. Aurora then reveled that she and Argenta are members of the clan of Silver Dragons who have protected Albion throughout history.

And, after Henry took over the conversation and (in a first ever moment of eye-opening seriousness) made Ril and Argenta stop arguing like a pair of wild cats, the long discussion proved informative for both sides. It was discovered that the Dragons were, in fact, also the guardians of the Shrine of the Spirit of the Mist and overseers of the trials on the path to said shrine. Despite managing to get this far in "less then proper ways" the older dragon decided that to at least give The Party (which contained a Dungeon Keeper and a Death Knight) the benefit of the doubt and see how they fared the rest of the way up. An opinion that was not shared by her younger sibling, as evident by the bruising on Ril's side.

But, once all was said and done, she made it clear that she herself could not judge their intentions (no matter how much they insisted they meant no harm and her here just to heal the girl who was harmed by Galakatath) and decided to (despite Argenta's protesting which quieted down after one of Aurora's no-nonsense death glares) lead The Party to the shrine proper on the top of the mountain - where *the others* would make their decision.

On their way up the mountain, which was also quite a while by foot, the group proceeded to engage in some idle chatter. Aurora shared the truth about the Winter War and, thanks to The Party's input filling in some blank portions of the story, it became evident that it was in fact Keeper Mukrezard in disguise who instigated the whole affair around the same time he created The Prison.

It was about at that time that they reached the stone structure at the top of the mountain. Some members of The Party felt a chill, not one made by the winds that howled bellow, but one bored into them by the two dozen icy glares of silver irises looking at them form in front of the building - and probably a few they could not see within the mist.

### - The Intentions of The Party:

The Party was lead into the shrine and were told to stand atop of a magic circle that could "tell truth from lies". There they were told to swear by The Light they would speak only the truth and state their intentions.

The young wizard spoke first spoke first - and already the expectations of the listeners were rattled. He stated that he, unlike the normal citizenship of Albion, could not swear by The Light and while he respected it and it's followers he was of the mind that it was his duty to make his own observations and decisions uninfluenced by any religious dogma. But he did swear by his own name to speak only truth and stated that The Party's intentions were for the best and that it was their truest desire to see Eline healed.

He was followed by the once-knight of Avatar Island. He as well said could not swear by The Light - albeit for different reasons. The death knight stated that his words - his heart - was to stained for such a thing. All the atrocities he committed while under the command of Moslyeas took away any such right. And while he could no longer swear by The Light anymore he swore by his name, one of the few things left that were still his, that their intentions were indeed righteous.

The marital artist spoke next. He swore by The Light and couched for his comrades stating that he too doubted the words of Ril at first but has since then come too the conclusion that the people at his side could truly be trusted and, in their own unique ways, were doing good by their own free wills.

Lastly the Keeper, the young man whom they were most suspicious of, spoke. He exclaimed that he can not - would not - pray or wear by The Light till the end of his days, such was the promise he had made to himself 10 years ago. He openly stated that his intentions, no matter how "righteous" he wanted them to be, were not done solely out of true sincerity nor could he ever truthfully say that any of his actions were. But no matter what desires lay inside of him he made it clear that he did indeed wish for the girl, who was at no fault of her own, to be restored and be given another chance at life.

The Dragons debated the answers of The Party for quite some time. Some of them were shocked and in disbelief that what they had know for so long ("All Keepers and their minion are being that are irredeemably evil") was turned upside down just like that. But no matter what doubt they had the fact, attested to by the light of the magical circle which confirmed the truth of their statements, that The Party was indeed not evil could not be opposed. Argenta in particular, the most vocal in the opposition of The Party, was rendered speechless and retired to another part of the shrine once the ceremonies were over.

But in the end they agreed to help The Party and, using the magic of The Light long since forgotten on Albion, restored Eline's mind to how it was before Galakatath .

**Quest objective** (restore the mind of Galakatath's former medium)**: Complete**

And with that The Party began to teleport out of the Shrine with Ril being the last one to make the jump.

"Before I leave......would it be possible for me to talk with The Spirit of The Mist?"

## *The Auction House War*

### - After the Quest:

Several days have past since The Party triumphantly returned from the Silver Islands and got almost all of what whats left of their prisoners to join their side, with only a few choosing opt out of the offer and getting sent back to the Underworld. Truly, the situation in the Dungeon has never seemed brighter......for all but one.

After Ril was left alone on Misty peak he decided to ask for an audience with The Spirit of the Mist in a hope to establish a contract wtih the several milenia old apparition and, after making his sincere plea heard, The Spirit had agreed to form a contract with the Summoner in with the goal of protecting Albion.

That decision was not a wise one.

As it turns out there are reasons why novice Summoners do not go around forming contracts with Lord-class spirits or higher. The magical backlash from the contract and the opening, closing and reopening of magic ciruts in his body made the fractures on his ribcage seem mild in comparison. After some time had passed and his body settled down he found himself in a rather peculiar state. Both the quality and amount of his magical pathways had grown exponentially and he found that, as far as sheer ability to manipulate Mana went, he would not lose to any trained magic-user - but all of his old circuits had been fried to the point where he was no longer capable of using any spells and needed to re-learn all of them.

At this point, if he had any doubt before, he was certain that whatever deity or cosmic force was looking at him from on high had a terrible sense of humor.

Meanwhile the rest of The Party was keeping busy while their Keeper was bedridden.

Henry seemed to have checked off their excursion as "all the required physical activity for the month" and took that as an excuse to raid the library (regardless of the time of night or day), searching for ways to realize some mysterious "personal project" he said he would share when the time is right. If there were any complaints about how the the hire had scrambled to a position of favor in the Dungeon so quickly they were not being voiced, rather it appeared that Henry had managed to adapt to his environment unnatural fast. It was not long before he was on a first name basis with nearly everybody in the Dungeon.

A fact which actually managed to make certain people who had a hard time making friends receive insult to their still healing injuries.

On the busier side of things, the new recruits needed to get used to how things operated and it was the officers job to get them settled in. Though the task itself turned out to be much less difficult then Hongshir and Herveus thought it would be.

As it was previously confirmed beyond any doubt, Galakatath was a horrible boss. And without the danger of being randomly selected as their Keepers "toy of the day" simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time looming over them their morale was quite high. The Minions who had been employed longer had also taken to their new colleagues enthusiasm with equal zeal, refusing to be outdone by newbies.

All this made their military drills with Herveus and their mandatory reading and writing lessons with Hongshir bare results very fast.....but it was not long before they noticed something was wrong.

The Dungeon was still understaffed.

### - Let's meet the new hires....again:

With some preparation Herveus and Honghshir (followed by a few troops) went to meet Kalandra who had been, until recently, busy setting up meetings with potential hires in The Underworld. The Dungeon was still lacking personnel, especially on important non-combat positions, and they were looking to rectify that issue sooner then later.

And, as a testament that Kalandra "still had it", the process itself went smooth as silk most of the way, with some careful interviews by the former Knight of Avatar Island and a currently active (but not quite vocal about it) Hero of The Light further screening the applicants to find ones truly (or at least more) suitable to The Party's "unique" brand of villainy. Members desperately needed by the grossly understaffed Research Department arrived in fair number and Rothgar (the head of the Dungeon's Crafting Department) had successfully managed to bring a very good amount of his able bodied kinsmen to sign up for the Workshop.

But alas, *it can never be easy.*

It turned out that the appearance of a Dungeon Keeper, let alone a Keeper who managed to defeat Mordred and send Galakatath running back to Zyreema had managed to garner some attention. Rumors of the "Cowardly and Deceptive scoundrel Merlin" (as Galakatath had taken to calling him) even managed to reach the ears of the many priests of the Dark Gods who jumped at the chance of convincing another Keeper to work in the interests of their dark patrons - and their dark patrons **alone**.

Frankly, the fact that the tavern they were in **didn't** get set on fire was something that earnestly took Kalandra for a spin. It was not exactly common practice to snub a priest of the "Dark God of Fire and Destruction" and the fact that the two fearless men (well, one man and a skeleton) did so with out any hesitation (and seemed to enjoy that they did after the fact). This would, naturally, come to bite them (and probably everybody else) big time later on.

But, other then that one guy who was literally *stomping out of the place fuming mad,* the rest of the work was cakewalk. Though some trouble did arise for the most important hires.

The people they interviewed for the position of Treasurer could clearly not be trusted with the job.

The Alchemist they had heard quite a lot about seemed adamant in his refusal to get involved with Keepers.

And their final hire, a Doctor, was nowhere to be found. While butchers, necromancers and all manner of flesh sculptors were aplenty in the Underworld there appeared to be a significant lack of the people whose job it was to close the wounds (before the patient died that was).

The best they could do was to hire a young Dark Elf boy who had just finished his apprenticeship as a barber surgeon. A desperate hire yes, but while slightly on the pudgy side which was strange for a Dark Elf, the boy shown himself surprisingly competent at his job. In a city populated mainly by Dark Elf-kin there was more of a demand for bandaging and splinting bones then there was for haircuts apparently.

And with that Herveus (albeit unknowingly) bought his first slave.

The following day, it fell onto the shoulders of the trio of Hongshir, Herveus and Kalandra to go out of the city limits and meet the "eccentric alchemist of some renown". The Bile Demon named Nurgle seemed to justify effort. His workshop was lined top to bottom with regents, potions and what could only be assumed based of the sickly purple fumes to be poisons of some notoriety. The hard part of course was getting him to agree to come work for The Party as many Dungeon Keepers until now have given him some generous (albeit with strings attached) offers - all of which he refused. But after some clever bargaining and baiting, the trio successfully got Nurgle to agree to meet the "Keeper Merlin" before he finalized his decision.

A few days later, once all of the people who passed the screening had got their affairs into order, the officers met up with the potential hire at The Underworld portal so they could have their final interview with Keeper Merlin.

But, as expected of The Underworld, information (even the kind we would like kept on the down-low) spreads far too quickly. The Party was met with a few unintended guests, the few mercenaries who heard that a Keeper was hiring trough the grapevine were of no consequence but sending away four priests of the Dark Gods would take a bit more tact.

So Hongshir swiftly gave them the polite verbal equivalent of "go hawk your wares somewhere else". Ril then came out of the Portal in full Merlin mode and tried to be a bit more regal about it, claiming that they were not hiring a priest at the moment and they would come and visit the Temples at a later date.

Turns out that without the young scion of the Mason's The Party had a severe lack of tact.

Some took to Merlin's statement better then others. The Priest of the Unraveler of Secrets in particular seemed to be very accepting. Or outright furious. He just gave a quick bow and went off without a word from start to finish so getting a beat on him was nigh impossible. Apparently that was the norm for the servants of The Dark God of Knowledge. The two priests of the Mighty Tyrant and Isubiar (the same priest the two officers had snubbed earlier) were much easier to get a grasp on however if the murderous red glow of their eyes was of any indication. The Priest of Isubiar especially seemed to be giving off embers and raising his voice in agitation.

So Melin said his farewells and shut the Portal in his face. *No way that will come back to bite them later on.*

Ril made a mental note to hire someone who has "tact" in the future.

The rest of the process went magnificently well on the other hand. The screening that the officers had done in The Underworld had been very thorough and almost all of the potential hires got position in the Dungeon. Even Nurgle, interested in this *very unusual* Keeper, agreed to take up the position of Head of the Alchemy division of the Research Department.

Yes. Truly a smooth process where nothing could possibly go wrong.

"By the way, where is Kalandra?"- The young Keeper asked the Death Knight.

"She went to infiltrate an Underworld auction house to see if she could dig up some useful information.

One use of *Sight of Evil* not reveling anything but darkness later.

".........................Herveus. We have a might have a problem."

### - Our "bid" is getting you out of here alive:

So Kalandra had been captured. Wonderful...

To make matters worse, the auction house she was investigating had apparently caught her, identified what she was **and** put her up as the set piece for the auction a week away. As expected The Party does not just sit back and let this happen.

And, with Ril saying his catchphrase for the hundredth time or so, "Merlin", Herveus, Hongshir, Henry, Count Shambles and the Horned Reaper (kept in interspace by the Keeper Hand for safety reasons) set of to....have a chat with the owner of the auction house.....while being armed to the teeth.

Luckily for everyone involved The Party strolled into the auction house grounds, a bustling marketplace selling all manner of items, creatures and even people (as expected of of a Black Market auction hose, villainy is truly the norm for everything) like they belonged there. Eventually making it into the peculiarly named "Pale Wing" auction house without even causing a ruckus. So far so good. Why, upon asking some questions and asking to see the head of the auction house they were even lead to a comfy waiting room - and offered tea! Turns out bad manners are for the barbaric, not the evil.

But evil is evil however, the older female behind the desk who introduced herself as a high ranking official within the "Pale Wing" and immediately moved to negotiations of "how much we will need to pay to get our minion back". Thankfully that is what Count Shambles and Henry were brought for (and totally not in case we need to reek magical havoc). The two more skillful negotiators just about managed to finalize some kind of deal where we could resolve this whole situation peacefully when, as can expected when things were going smoothly, things went south in a matter of minutes.

As it turned out one of the things being sold at the auction Kalandra was scheduled to be sold at was information on a certain Keeper and his bases. Notably - Keeper Galakatath's information which The Party had sold to Steve the Merchant and managed to get sold and re-sold until it eventually ended up here at the "Pale Wing". So the fact that the Macho Keeper would like to avoid having all of his secret information out for the world to see should be taken as a matter of course. Which led him, possessing the body of a common Imp, to storm the office and demand that the information not be sold like a child throwing a tantrum (if that tantrum involved some very graphic death threats).

The his eyes met with The Party - then all Hells broke loose.

It was not even a full hour from that moment that Galakatath had mobilized his army at the Underworld Portal and began marching at the auction house screaming profanities the entire way there. Some may claim that this was in part The Party's fault for provoking him and slicing of his short Impy hands before tossing him out of a third story window - but who cares about the small details when you have an army at your door?

Certainly not Melissandragorana aka "Melissa", the head of the "Pale Wing" auction hose whom The Party managed to strike a very interesting deal with in her time of need.

Melissa would, in return for them helping to ward off the coming force, release Kalandra. The plan itself was simple, buy time for Melissa to sell all of her information on Galakatath to as many of his enemies as possible, forcing him to either stay here while his Dungeons are under siege (and die once all of his Dungeon Hearts have been destroyed) or return to defend his bases and leave this place be.

Normally it would have been impossible for The Party (consisting of 7 people with the addition of Kalandra) to buy that kind of time but as it tunes out fortune, as well as defensive measures taken by the Dragon Bureaucrat all around her auction house, favor the bold! After getting Melissa to agree to become a minion (thus allowing her territory to become Melin's by extension and allowing him the ability to freely teleport the others around the battlefield while at the same time preventing Galakatath from doing the same) The Party utilized the terrain as well as all of their skill and experience (and also "borrowing" a few things from the auction house and it's surroundings) to buy the time needed for Melissa's deals to go through. Eventually even managing to rout the invading force itself!

All at the cost of several near death experiences for each member of The Party, some grievous physical harm that would take quite a while to heal and some " slight alteration" to the local landscape (The new lake seems quite nice actually, really brightens the place up). And the almost total destruction of the entire "Pale Wing" and the surrounding slave market.

Truly, the day has been saved.

...except for the fact that there were now enormous amounts of slaves and beasts without anyone to care for them and, if left alone, they would just be captured again.

...

....

......

And so The Party decided to ~~clean up their mess~~ free the slaves and return them to their proper homes, returning triumphantly (albeit exhausted and wounded) to the Dungeon with their new Treasurer (and her former employees along with some merchants and beast tamers from the now ruined slave market who are out of work) as new hires.

**Melisa** **has joined The Party!**

## *The Summer Festival and the unconventional audience*

### - At this point, we are kind of getting used to it:

As usual, sorting up everything that came in the aftermath somehow ended up being more trouble then actually doing battle.

Melisa and her staff integrated into the Dungeon with almost mechanical efficiency, giving order to the flow of money in the Dungeon and making the, as Melisa described it, "sorry excuse for a ledger that looks like it was kept by a child running a village toy store" actually be of use.

A good thing too, because otherwise the new "Beastiary", "Alchemy" and "Agriculture" sub-departments (headed by Herveus, Nurgle and Sirra respectively) would have been turned out to be a disaster. The unique materials required by each and proper channels to get them without attracting "the wrong attention" requiring advanced (or Draconic, if one were to stoop to using puns) bookkeeping.

A burden that Ril, who had been laid up in bed within the infirmary for several weeks, was glad to have off of his (very pained) shoulders. The beds beside him that belonged to the sprawled out figures of Henry and the Horned Reaper (who, to their merit, managed to get much less severe injuries) now empty as the duo had long since went back to their usual shenanigans.

But that did not mean he could rest, no Sir-e! Melissa had other plans. "*Luckily for him"* the magic circuits that were fried to smolders during their overuse of The Battle Staff of Calarine were not the same ones as the ones in the Dungeon Heart (which were the ones used by Keeper hand and similar abilities) so that *"it still counted as rest".* First he had to fill out the ledger of all of their expenses till date "properly this time" as well as use Keeper Hand to manage all of the business he could no longer do due to his *"slight issue of immobility"* (a fact that Thomas spared no effort of rubbing into his face whenever he took the time to take the long way around back to the lab at every chance he got).

This included helping Herveus and Hongshir with their new duty: escorting groups of refuges back to Zyreema!

Yes, in addition to their usual duties around the Dungeon the two officers were also heading the operation of returning the very distrustful former slaves back to their homes on the Zyreema via the Underworld Portals. They themselves never complained of course. Some people might have met with the peoples at best skeptic at worst downright hateful comments with disdain but the two more "Good oriented" members of The Party took no offence - they were downright pleased by the whole endeavor actually. Too long had it been since the last time they did some sort of selfless heroics or random acts of kindness and after being stuck underground for so long a bit of fresh air did the men wonders.

They did meet one minor obstacle on their attempts at a systematic drop off though. And this obstacle had fairy wings and was, at least for the first week and a half since they came back to the Dungeon, laying unconscious next to their ever buried under paperwork Dungeon Keeper.

That obstacle was named Carmila. And no one could have been aware of the impact this one Fairy would have in the story, and the future of all of Albion, that was to come.

But to bring those events up now would not do them justice.

But before embarking on those particular quest lines there were some other, a bit more merry ones, that need to be put out of the way first. Summer was after all, a time of new meetings and fresh starts.

The Death Knight would have formed a bond with his mighty mount (whom he had ridden to battle during The Auction House War), the juggernaut war beast known as a Rox, that he aptly named Toothpick.

Motivated by curiosity, Henry would actually leave the lab on occasion and try to heroically tame the mighty beast Ragnarok.

But, unlike his colleagues, there was one member of The Party who felt he was needed elsewhere. The recent excursions outside the land of Albion reminding him that there was good that needed to be done outside of the Dungeon and that he was the one that needed to see it done. This person was, of course, the mighty warrior Hongshir.

### - Strange meetings under stranger circumstances:

The poor district of Sweetwater. He had seen worse. The people here were far from wealthy by a long shot but they were also a far cry from desperate. A state of mind The Wandering Warrior of The Zantsuken School had seen more often then he would have liked back on Zyreema.

His work was cut out for him - but it was not more then he could handle.

He started making round trips to the capital and meeting with the people that the Church of The Light could not reach. He helped them with repairing not only their houses, but also their homes. Families torn apart by their plights began to come together again while looking at the back of the Hero doing his work. It was not long before the name Hongshir became known among the people of that part of town as a person they could trust and respect.

In particular, there was one whom Hongshir had given special attention. A child by the name of Michael, a street rat boy with a stubborn streak, managed to capture Hongshir's interest.

He lived in a bad home, Michael did. His father was a drunk with a gambling problem and Michael always wondered how he managed to get two vices when one of them was already enough to bring them to the brink of starvation. The charity coming from The Church was the only thing that kept them afloat and he made it a point to refuse it whenever given the chance, his father traded off whatever they were given anyway so what was the point? Better to scarf down what he could without letting his old man know, the less time with those nosy Priests the better.

The merchant could live without a few apples - he thought to himself. His rumbling stomach made it clear that he however, could not. His usual train of thought, his routine, during his snatch and grab interrupted by a veritable wall of muscle that was a certain foreigner.

Not even Hongshir knew why he tried to find him after that. The boy that ungratefully ran away with the apples after the warrior paid for them but it was not like Hongshir was saving the kid from trouble with the guards expecting gratitude. Maybe it was compassion? Perhaps it hurt him to see a child that was likely to lose a future stealing instead of making something of himself?

Whatever his motivation was, asking around among the local shelters and locals, was not what mattered however. At the end of the day it came down to one thing and one thing alone. Words that resonated with the warrior every time when times became hard or he looked death in the face:

**It was the right thing to do.**

### - A festival unlike any other:

Some time had passed since then. Thanks to Jared's valiant efforts in politics he managed to push back the date of The Party's meeting with Baron Leopold until their Keeper was in a state capable of movement again. And since waiting for a full recovery was likely to take far too long, The Party decided that him being wheelchair mobile would have to do.

And so, under some miracle of coincidence ,The Party teleported to the capital of Albion at the height of the Summer Festival.

The situation was unexpected to say the least. Usually a group like theirs would attract but not "Oh look! A group of performers is over there!" kind of attention. The streets were absolutely packed with people from all over Albion and it seemed almost like at least half of them had asked them to preform some manner or tricks before they reached their destination. Needless to say, some people enjoyed the rowdy atmosphere more then others.

By the time they had finally arrived at the gate that Jared's not-so-helpful-because-all-the-danm-landmarks-had-been-decorated-into-unrecognizability map they were completely covered in festival apparel. Hongshir was wearing several masks on the side of his head and had flower necklaces hanging of of every single part of him (gifts of many **many** children who were awestruck by the amazing foreign hero), Kalandra had changed costumes at least three times along the way and Heanry was looking like he was going to pass out from the heat and "prolonged exposure to fresh air" which he swore had some kind of toxic and/or performance reducing effect. To top it all off "The Great Merlin" that was being pushed forward in a wheelchair by a Knight that had so many souvenirs inside of his armor that he had candy apples sticking out of the cracks between the plate.

Though at that point he was not "The Great Merlin". Or anything close to that for that matter. His one last good grey robe (if you could call a white cloak that changed color in the wash "a good robe") and his mask had gotten splattered on by overly enthusiastic lady that was too drunk to care that she just dumped the contents of her chamber pot on a random passerby without the common courtesy to yell *gardyloo.*

 So, in part as a form of some kind of petty retribution, The Party had "acquired" one of her white sheets that were hanging out to dry in the back yard and helped themselves to some well-water to get the smell out before they went to meet the Baron. A ironic sun/lion/deer/flower/tree shaped mask purchase by Kalandra later and "The Great Merlin" had officially become "The Spirit of Summer".

The guards that were waiting for their arrival and who had been warned not to get intimidated by the arrival of a "fearsome looking group" were instead flabbergasted beyond words by the sight of a gang of people who had looked like they were enjoying themselves far *far* too much.

It was a strange building. They went in trough the back as far as they could tell and due to the commotion on the streets none of them got a good look at it from the outside. The halls were way too long, even for noble houses. Most of it was made of finely worked stone and decorated with all manner of fancy-looking art (not that the current members of The Party had an appreciation for that sort of thing). To top it off the windows were made of glass! Glass! And not the cheep stuff either, some the windows were many colored mosaics depicting all sorts of heroic moments of Albion history (that was way too extravagant, even for a Baron).

But, in the end, they were not here for sight seeing. A servent-looking person wordlessly led them to a meeting room where they saw the usual cadre of people. Baron Leopold, Abbot Duval and Court Wizard Dumat were all present but there seemed to be some new serious looking faces at their sides. Nobles, from what The Party could tell.

From then on the discussion went....well? About as well as they could have hoped, given the circumstances. The Party formally informed the officials that the threat of Keeper invasion was gone for a time, the invader Galakatath had been thoroughly stomped on another front (which will give pause to any thinking about invading Albion any time soon) as well as, as a warning measure against further invasions, The Party has created the magic lantern "Sulfuros" that is bound to the Spirit of the Mist and will warn of any more unwelcome ships entering the fog.

Though it seemed the gesture was unneeded as Court Wizard Dumat told them that they already possessed a similar item, a bracer inlaid with a valuable gem passed down generations of Court Wizards serving the Royal Family, that had the same function as the lantern they had been gifted.

Though they still "appreciated the gesture and would gladly accept the token of good will" as they put it (and not in any way wanting to thoroughly examine an item that Merlin just plopped on the table like it was nothing but apparently possessed a long lost enchantment made by one of the most legendary former Court Wizards of Albion).

The rest of the talks were mostly bureaucracy, but the topics of The Party's stance on Albion and the Royal Family came up quite often, some nobles displeased with the appearance of an unknown power on Albion. Finally though, The Party had informed the officials of their intent to set up a enterprise known as "The Garl Company" on Albion soil as well managed to convince the Abbot to give them samples of Holy Mana and grant them access to a holy relic for "research purposes".

All in all it was a good day (not counting the chamber pot being dumped on a certain somebody's head).

So - they thought - why stop it there? There was a festival ongoing after all. Might as well enjoy it.

After Herveus and Merlin went to preform some business on the Silver Isles, they came back from the Dungeon with Sirra and proceeded to let The Party party hardy all the way till the crack of dawn. Welcoming a new and pleasant Albion sunrise.

### - The boy named Michael:

And speaking of new dawns, one was coming for the young boy living in Sweetwater.

Hongshir had made a decision. It had been about a month since he met the lad and started to help him learn to take charge in his own life, but it was still not enough. Even if he kept on like this there was a large chance that the boy simply would not live up to his own potential if left in the Sweetwater.

He could do Good in the future. Not **good** but real, heroic **Good** if he took the opportunity. The kind that could very well shape the world into a, at least slightly, better world.

So he offered him a choice. He offered him a chance to make something of himself like the boy himself never thought possible. The boy could chose the simple and easy road. He would become some apprentice within the city and live a peaceful life. It would take some effort yes, but he had it in him to pull that off.

But he had another choice. Michael said it himself that he wanted to make something of himself - to be better then he was now. Hongshir made it clear to the boy that the path he sought would not be easy. That he would struggle. That it was more then likely that he would this path would lead him to a tragic ending.

Only if he had the resolve to get kicked into the mud countless times only to stand back up again should he endeavor to pursue the path he sought.

"Even so.......do you still want to?"

"Yes Hong.....no..........**YES TEACHER!**"

And so, only moments later, the boy found himself taken to a world out of his wildest dreams. A world where Orcs walked the halls, a world where he would be taught by a Death Knight and a Wandering Warrior, a world where he worked for a Dungeon Keeper.

And with a loud thump. He fainted in surprise.

**Michael has joined The Party!**

 A month passed quickly, friendships were made and bonds were formed, but who knows what dangers The Party would ~~cause~~ be involved next?

## *The End of Summer*

### - Fundraising antics:

The first month of Autumn was fast approaching, the leaves were turning red, the days were getting shorter and everybody had begun wearing thicker clothing.

Meanwhile, in a underground base where the passing of seasons was all but unnoticeable, and the only way to tell the time of day was the hourly ringing of a bell and the rhythmical beating of the Dungeon Heart, an important meeting was being held.

*Ladies, gentlemen and other. We are facing a financial crisis.*

 Yes. A crisis. That was truly an apt word for their current state. The aftermath of the Auction House War had doubled the amount of minions in the Dungeon and with that doubled their running costs. Luckily Melissa and the newly formed Logistics Department were making the new structure manageable but there was only so much they could do, at the rate they were going to be in the red unless they got another source of income.

*......anyone?*

After quite a bit of debate and the usual banter The Party finally managed to make a decision. Raid was (clearly) not an option so they decided to invest in business. Enter: *The Garl Company.* Owned by Thomas Garl and Melissa this enterprise would create branches all over the Kingdom of Albion and sell goods that varied from common chicken meat and eggs(The Hatcheries in the Dungeon had been brought to a ridiculous industrial level, might as well make the most of them), to specialty goods such as books and materials from Zyreema and The Underworld. Certainly it would be the ticket to get them out of the pickle they were in and produce the profit they would need make their "Dungeon Heart by the New Year" deadline.

But they would need a steady influx of cash till then...not to mention a licence from the Crown allowing us to do business on Albion...

Well. Guess we go back to the ye' old method of gathering wealth - scavenging.

There are hundreds of shipwrecks within The Mist around Albion. Some of them **have** to have treasure. Looks like Merlin will be busy as a one-man salvaging operation..

### - Saving the brains from fatal boredom:

Meanwhile, Henry comes up with a plan of his own. He persuades Hongshir to help him break into the forbidden library of the Institute of Higher Learning in Beloveno and steal a book in the hopes to learn about lost ruins and hidden treasure and, after a few close calls, they manage to take a book unnoticed.

What they managed to get their hands on was a journal of a hermit wizard that guided them to the northern swamps of Albion. There, together with Tserk and Sirra whom they also managed to involve in their treasure hunt, they found the remains of a collapsed tower, nearly completely submerged. Henry found the hidden entrance to an escape tunnel that led them to a bedroom in the first underground floor of the tower. Diving even further into the dark and murky depths they found the laboratory and, within it, five brains resting in glass containers as well as a silvery headband and a heavy treasure chest.

To make things even stranger - the brains could talk! The jars that contained them inscribed with some kind of rune that made it possible for their thoughts to be made audible. Something Henry would have loved to spend hours right there in the barley illuminated ruin examining if it was not for the water that was slowly reaching up to his knees.

Needless to say, the rest of the group did not share Tserk's ability to breathe under water so they grabbed everything they could (everything but the very heavy chest) and went back to the Dungeon where the brains were interrogated. One claimed to be a noble woman and the next one to be her bodyguard. The third one apparently has not spoken in years and the fourth and fifth one said they were simple farmers who fell victim to the mad wizard who had lived in the tower centuries ago and took part in his experiments. The noble woman and her companion then came to investigate the disappearance of the villagers when, they too, fell prey to his machinations.

After the brains were fully brought up to speed (and Herveus had laid down the appropriate punishment for stealing) Henry tested the other thing that they found - the silver headband. Putting it on he felt a foreign presence trying to take over his mind. And after he fought it back successfully it turned out that it was the mind of the evil wizard was acting through the headband.

After an interrogation that involved a a bit of rope, a chicken, and one of the jars, it was reveled that the evil wizard (whom Henry loathingly dubbed "Mind Jacker" or just "Jacker" for short) had in fact been researching a way to prolong his life by putting his mind into a new body. His former and current actions depicting him as a man of cruelty who viewed those around him as tools for his own purposes.

In a rare showing of actual anger, Henry proposed that the silver headband (and thus Jacker himself) be destroyed, a decision that the rest of the brains (who were all trapped in their current state for 700 years due to his villainy) were loudly in support of.

But Keeper Merlin instead hired him conditionally under several conditions, Jacker was effectively put on probation with Henry as his parole officer. For the following time until the brains have been given new bodies he will be under the young wizards watchful eyes and, if he behaves appropriately, he will be given a second chance within the Dungeon.

Time passed quickly after that and sooner rather later everyone in the Dungeon had set into a routine. Before anyone was the wiser a good month had already past and all the preparations had been made to take the last of the refuges back to Zyreema.

## *Journey to the Zyreema and The Mages Gift-baskets*

### - Farewells and the Land of Ice:

The last group of refugees and freed slaves had to be brought back to Zyreema. After much debate and excessive investigation, a route was planned that would bring them through the icy wilderness of the north west and to one of the biggest seaports of the east coast - Byzantinopal. Alternative routes were dismissed because they either led through an active war zone, Keeper claimed territory or even more inhospitable environments (and that is saying something considering their better alternative was icy wilderness).

And so, came time for farewells - that some seemed to care about much more then others. The cart was escorted to the Undeworld Portal by the Keeper Merlin and the younger members of the Dungeons personnel (namely Lucy and Michael) who bid their farewells to their new friend Carmila and the dozen some refugees. They all got on a cart that was maned by Herveus, Hongshir, Henry, Ogin, Sonia and Valna and pulled by Toothpick, the Rhox Herveus had adopted after the Auction House Incident and set of on their journey.

After several jumps trough the Underworld Portal Network the group finally arrived on the north west of Zyreema. They drove through the snow blanketed hills and a dense pine forest and met the locals, a band of ~~barbaric~~ free spirited and rowdy hunters. Despite their rough humor and crass attitudes they offered to help the travelers navigate the wilderness to their destination - for a small price. But between the choice of wandering trough endless fields of snow as their very-sensitive-to-the-cold passenger slowly froze to death despite being covered with enough fur to carpet a small home and giving the good men some goods the choice was a rather easy one.

It took them about a day or so until they managed to reach the place where the next Portal (which they needed to cross the next leg of their journey) supposedly was. But to their dismay what they found was not a Portal but a narrow cave full of Ice Spiders. Very hungry Ice Spiders. It turned out the spiders belonged to a brood of a Maiden of the Nest, a creature half humanoid and half spider that sometimes called a drider or spider queen. She was raised in that nest, which was the former Heart Chamber of a destroyed dungeon, for her entire life and, after a bit of negotiation on the parts of the 3H's, shown them where the device that they called a "Portal" was and let them pass by the nest unhindered. Although this was not before she asked quite a few questions about the world outside of her homely little cave, showing an interest in an offer Henry made to accept the spider brood into the Dungeon if they so wished (though she decided to think on it for a while).

### - Merlin's life threatening tea parties:

Meanwhile on Albion, Ril had gotten himself into his newest conundrum. The salvaging operation was proceeding smoothly but his progress on his Summoning Room had hit a standstill. The room itself had been completed and was ready for tuning - but there in lay the problem.

His inexperience in his own magic had caught up to him, Albion was a place of many old and inhuman creatures and who knew what they would do if some mage just started to send, what are essentially booming shouts, echoing through reality. The fine tuning would require only a short while but he decided that it was probably best to at the very least inform them what he was up to beforehand. No need to take any unnecessary chances.

And so, the young Keeper decided that he was going to pay a visit to "an expert" that was supposed to live in the forests to the north, armed with nothing more then a hope that this expert actually exists, a preliminary list of Spirits which are said to exist on the island, and a gift basket containing enough sweets to fuel the sugar rush of a fair amount of children.

But, a sudden turn for the better for the usually unlucky masked man calling himself Merlin, his gambit payed off. After a fair amount of walking though the forest while singing of some old rhymes the Keeper was allowed to stumble upon the cottage of The Witch of the North.

The meeting was quite pleasant actually, by far the most pleasant exchange Merlin ever had since the persona was created. There were only two hidden threats throughout the conversation as a whole and after they got trough that song and dance they found out they had quite a few things in common. She even helped him out and gave him a few pointers to make his quest easier. Truly it was a stroke of fortune.

So in the days that followed Merlin continued to go down his list and either meet with the greater spirits of Albion or leave gift baskets and letters for those who did not come face to face with him, eventually coming down to his last two (and rightfully so) on the list.

The final spirits were *The Queen of Cold Air and Darkness* and *The Spirit of the Southern Mountains*, neither of whom Ril was looking forward to visiting. Both of them were as old as the land itself and more dangerous then anything mortals were capable of imagining (if even half the legends about the The Queen were even remotely true). To make matters worse, due to his status as a Dungeon Keeper, both had ample cause to dispatch him at even the slightest cause (and that is if they did not just **end him** right then and there).

At the end though, the guilt of actually causing the earth in the south to wither and die made him chose to avoid the south for as long as he could physically remain in denial - Merlin would go to the dark cavers on the eastern mountain range first.

Though, as dangerous as the void of pure dead air was and no matter how terrifying the voices carried in the wind were, there was a bright side. An ancient tradition North had shared with him stated that as long as he "braved the darkness and shown no signs of faltering to the frost" he would not be harmed (unless he did something to earn her ire. In which case he and all of his limbs were fair game).

So basically as long as he shown no signs of being cold whatsoever he would be safe. Maybe.

For some reason, as he stood before the entrance to the cave said to house the shrine to *The Queen of Cold Air and Darkness,* he remembered an old Albion superstition about how a person would sneeze if somebody was talking smack about him behind his back (Though he himself was not aware of why he remembered this suddenly).

### - The Great City of Byzantinopal:

Truly suspicious. It had been nearly a week now that they have been traveling together yet Herveus had yet to see Henry well even flinch. Though perhaps a bit of explanations is in order.

Ever since they began traveling to Byzantinopal everyone has been in close proximity to well...everyone else. They took breaks to stretch their legs every once in a while but, probably due to general unwillingness to be outside of the cart in a tundra or some strange crystalline part of The Underworld, everyone has been rubbing elbows with each other and in some cases being way too close then is necessarily appropriate. Especially Valna.

She seemed to take Henry's rejection of her advances thus far like it was a personal challenge. For the past few days she has been getting more and more.....frisky. "Accidental" skinship or a strap of her clothes would "just so happen to come loose", things like that. Quite a few of the male refuges were sneaking looks when they thought nobody was looking (and even some of the women too!).

But Henry was undeterred. Unshakable even. Even as she gave her best effort to seduce him he didn't so much as **flinch.** Which was much easier said then done given Valna's ample "assets".

At first Herveus chalked it up to Henry's best effort to avoid getting caught up in one of Valna's new plays, but soon he began to worry. Henry was not the type to reject new experiences no matter how morbid nor was he the type to outright ignore the advances of somebody else for no reason. So why was he behaving like this? Was he simply so dense that he did not understand that she was coming on to him? Surely not. You would need to have your head made of wrought iron to not notice advances this brazenly open - well that or to be as dense as Ril.

*Meanwhile, at the same time as that thought moved thought Herveus's mind, a certain someone cursed the fact that "it could never be easy" and scrambled for the exit as a haunt of winter spirits chased after him with the intention of turning him into a very bloody snowman.*

Alright, maybe it was not his to pry. Maybe whether or not Henry responds to the advances directed towards him was an entirely personal matter Herveus should have no part of................but he just could not get it out of his head. Surely it would not hurt to do a little bit of roundabout prying right? He would just need send Sonia to talk to the young wizard and get a feel for his personality and maybe something more (or even sinister) to his intentions.

*5 minutes later.*

"You know, if you want to ask me something you can just do it yourself"

Operation failed - Sonia flopped over instantly.

The discussion that followed was tense with a rather anticlimactic and awkward end. As it turned out Henry was not some kind of undead masquerading as a human or being mind controlled by Jacker (whose anklet he was wearing) or any of the other explanation Herveus could come up with to explain his lack on interest in the opposite gender. Henry was in fact - **gay**.

Herveus was pretty sure that if he still had ears the would be beat red at that time. He avoided making eye contact with Henry for the day that followed.

And it was certainly an eventful day. Finally, the expedition had reached its destination - Byzantinopal.

The pale city walls some of the tallest on Zyreema, standing as a constant reminder of the might of the Summus Empire and their unwillingness to falter before the Keeper threat. The streets inside (inspected by The Party after certain members put on their disguises) bustling and overflowing with life, with merchants and shops on every corner and the clicking of coins exchanging hands almost as loud as the clamor that filled the streets. With a few parting words The Party sent off the refugees (making sure they had enough coin to reach their homes) and decided to take a break for the rest of the day to enjoy the sights.

But, unfortunately for members of The Party in charge of the expedition, some peoples take on enjoyment was to browse shops while others seemed to find enjoyment and trouble to be synonymous. And oversight on their part - and one that nearly ended up causing the death of a city guard.

### - The Demon Spy of Albion:

The Mason family was fairly well off by the looks of it. Cecilia noted that, in the time she was not here, it had a new wing built. But then again that was no surprise. Her most recent work around Albion had taken the claws of of some of the masons biggest business rivals and secured some very lucrative deals. She would have liked to say that "Sebastian would be pleased" but she new better - there was no pleasing the man.

And by not just her apparently. After the briefest of explanations, probably so as not to waste any more of his valuable time on a pawn, Cess had been given new standing orders:

"Henry has gone missing - find him and bring him back."

Oh, what trouble has that child gotten himself into **this time**?

.......

..........

.............Ancient evil wizards apparently. Fantastic.

She had her informants looking into this "Merlin" character for a while now but the information she could gather was limited at best. Lead later lead turned out to be a dead end with reports saying that he was on one end of the island while others said he was on the other. Some people say they spotted the mysterious masked figure on top of mountain and other claim to have seen him wandering trough the wood with picnic baskets. **Picnic baskets** for crying out loud! Even when she retraced Henry's steps she ended up finding nothing. The trail had turned so cold you would think it was Sebastian's black heart during during the Darkbreak festival...

Sigh...she would have to rely on her former student - Jared. She hadn't talked to him ever since the little birdy said it was time for him to leave the nest. If she didn't know any better she would almost say that she missed him, though that was to be excepted, she worked very hard to teach him all the subtleties of spycraft. Any old bumpkin could just put a dark cowl over themselves and call himself a spy but only a true masterspy could ever weave mystery into their very being with ever sublime grace. The mysterious speech pattern doesn't just happen by itself you know - one has to work on it.

Though her former pupil seemed to be against respecting their relationship and smoothly refused to speed up her search. He also seemed to have clearly forgot who he was dealing with.

Truly embarrassing. Cess almost could not believe that somebody she had personally molded would make the rookie mistake of leaving their papers out in the open. Yes, most people would overlook a paper which appeared to be some random scribbles (but was actually a coded message) casually left out as if there was nothing to hide, but that was no excuse. She had worked enough jobs that involved wizards to recognize a set up for delivering information via scrying and a drop site. And she was not going to let him get away with the "You didn't find it - I left it there for you" excuse. She was the one that taught him that.

One old switch-a-roo later and his message was now replaced with her invitation. Now all she needed to do was wait until somebody took the bait and hopefully it will not take her too long to follow that little mouse till she eventually found the den.

.....

......

...........

"Alright" - She had to admit, but not aloud of course. She was a professional after all - "I was not expecting this"

It only took her little invitation a few hours to get some attention, but she was expecting a low level agent or a go between at best - not for Merlin himself to arrive outside of Evercalm to meet her with a vampire in toe. This along with the crimson glow in the masked mans eyes, unfortunately for her, confirmed her suspicion - this Merlin was indeed a Dungeon Keeper.

Albeit, she noted, a fairly new one by the looks of it. Well, either new or kind of....strange? He certainly did not act like a run of the mill Dungeon Keeper at least that was certain. Cess decided to take a risk after confirming that this "Merlin" had indeed employed Henry (if his word was to be trusted. But knowing Henry it was not all that unlikely) and provoked the Keeper into capturing her, knowing that this was as good of a chance as she was ever going to get.

She did not expect him to employ a deceptively cunning tentacle monster. That was a miscalculation on her part.

### - It is only natural that you to go visit a church after you commit a crime:

They had really done it this time.

After dropping of the refuges and having their day of relaxation The Party managed to convince a high ranking bishop in Byzantinopal to send a priest back with them to consecrate the long lost land of Albion. Things were going so well....until night came.

Whose idea was it to let Henry and Valna go off on their own and stay in the city for the night? Whoever it was Herveus felt like he deserved a pay cut or a lashing or some other punishment that would instill the fear of death into them.

The city was now on high alert. The guards were alert and searching for the suspicious individuals that had assaulted and nearly killed a guard the night before. Luckily for the guard however, someone had blown the guards horn and backup had arrived in time to save his life.

With that The Party's attempts at making a neat impression and leaving with no trouble (something they were **so close** to pulling off for once) had escaped them once again. Now, as per usual, it was up to them to clean up the mess.

Like they had originally intended the three (Herveus, Henry and Hongshir) were to attend the ceremony held in the church and commune with The Light in order to prove their intentions were pure and that it was safe to allow a priest to come with them to Albion, but this now the situation had a twist - they also had to prove that the case of the guard was truly an accident and not done out of malice. And, if The Light found them guilty and wicked of heart, it would be off the the deepest cells that Byzantinopal could offer.

But The Light did not find them wanting. In an experience that only a rare few ever take part in Herveus, Henry and Hongshir were enveloped within a golden light and their consciousness was taken to a realm of an infinitely gentle warmth. The Light **spoke** to them in all of it's majesty and it welcomed them into its embrace.

For Hongshir it offered congratulations, praising the Hero for his magnificent work thus far. In his wisdom he had made the right choice when he met with the one now called Merlin. They gave him their trust and told him to proceed as becomes a exemplar of the Virtues and they would support him with all they could offer in his quest to make bring back the now Keeper back to the right path.

To him they bestowed The Mark of a Hero and a keystone that allowed him the unhindered use of Hero Portals.

For Henry Mason it offered answers to his many questions. The normally curious Henry nearly overwhelmed with the opportunity to speak to a God, an chance most Wizards spent their lives trying to obtain. The more he asked the more questions he had all the way until The Light **asked** him a question of their own - "What is it that you seek?".

To this the young man replied only after serious thought. The encounter with the Force of All-Encompassing Good steeling his resolve and remembering the many people he has gotten to know since becoming a resident of the Dungeon: "I wish to make a place that allows for the coexistence of all who desire it, be it those from our world or realms bellow".

To him they granted the right to take valuable church scripts on his return to Albion and hoped that he realized his aspiration, though they warned him of the hardships such a goal will bring.

Finally, for Herveus The Resilient The Light offered peace eternal, should he desire it. His existence bound in a state of undeath that it was posed a great risk towards his eternal soul. Here, in the domain of The Light that was their holy ground, they could protect it and move it within along the proper way of of the cycle of reincarnation. But they warned him that should he fall anywhere else that his soul would not escape the grip of the Lord of All Things Undead. But Herveus chose to persevere. He chose to move forward and make amends for the wrongs he did while under Moslyeas and assist the companions he had made in their quest. The Light bared witness to his resolve and was pleased.

To him they also bestowed a Hero Portal keystone, but also granted him a blessed new armor befitting the caliber of the Knight that stood before them.

And with Their parting words The Party was once again aware that they stood in the church within Byzantinopal. Needless to say the brief peace did not last long - it was only minutes later that they were negotiation with the hard-lined captain of the city guard. Even with the Archbishop personal vouching for them the best they were able to do was to have Valna calmly taken in and detained while they went throughout the city looking for a way to get her released. Hongshir even offered Valna to hold his heirloom as part of a promise that they would absolutely not abandon her.

And with that, they split up and went looking for somebody they could negotiate with.

### - Paying a visit to dear old "Granny":

Putting off the inevitable can only ever last so long. After recovering from his cold (far faster then he would have liked) it was time that Merlin grab an extra special gift basket and go pay a visit to the Lord of the Southern Mountains. "Extra special" because he bought a bottle of Dragon Blood Sake from Melissa after hearing that the Spirit of the Southern Mountains was partial to fine liquor. Ril had hoped that this fairly expensive bribe (how could one bottle cost so much?!) he would be brought one step closer to returning alive in one, unmangled piece. Heck, considering past experiences he set his expectations lower, coming back alive in one only slightly mangled piece was within the acceptable margin of error.

Though perhaps his fears were needed (this time)?

After a good amount of wandering with gift basket in hand he happened upon a very peculiar rabbit. Following the little critter lead him into a space which he could tell, because of his recent interactions with the Spirits of Albion, was not of this world. He had, without much trouble, arrived at a run down cottage in the middle of the unnaturally green wood for this time of year. Somehow, he got the gnawing suspicion that the current state of the Spirit Realm was his fault. A suspicion which was confirmed after entering the cottage and meeting the only resident.

At a glance one could almost say she was your average old lady. But that was only at first glance, anybody with half a sense of Magic in them could tell that there was much **much** more. Before the inhuman features like the strangely rocky patches of skin and almost leaf like hair had come into focus he could **feel** the pressure she was giving off. Even the clearly weakened state the woman was in, laying in her bed stricken with some kind of nasty ailment, the ebb and flow of this entire realm could be felt pulsing trough her and Merlin was almost amazed that his senses as a Summoner had evolved enough that he was actual capable of discerning that.

But what could possibly cause this level of harm to a Spirit of such great pow.........oh who was he kidding? After a short discussion that bordered on him trying to make sense of ramblings that switched from the kind words of a sweet old lady to the earth quaking with the stern voice of something inhuman, Merlin decided to tidy up her abode and slowly earn her trust and give her an examination to determine the cause of the of her current state. Needless to say - it was indeed his fault.

The Dungeon Heart had poisoned the land around it and this had obviously not helped her regain a youthful complexion. Before Ril could even think of asking her about using the Summoning Chamber it was obvious he was going to have to significantly improve her current health. After spending a good part of the day doing chores and yard work he said his farewells to the ever so slightly healthier looking "Granny Hill" as she insisted to be called he gave thought to his next step as he approached the exit. Normal medicine wouldn't work on a Spirit so he decided to have have Nurgle prioritize the completion of the Super-Fertilizer project. Maybe if he re-invigorated the land around Sunnybrook again her health would improve....

"By Deary, make sure to visit your dear old Granny again soon!".

.......**Wait**. What did she say? She did mean that as a "I am everybodys Granny" kind of thing right? Not an actual grandmother kind of "Granny" kind of thing right? Right?!

### - So is visiting a Fairy embassy apparently:

But the doors kept getting shut in their faces.

Some officials heard them out but as soon as word got out that the person in prison works for a Dungeon Keeper the response was always the same - a swift and righteous verbal boot.

Seeing their options narrow before them and seeing as the government of Byzantinopal was not going to be of help, The Party decided to try the one place that is within the city but not affiliated with it - the embassy of the Shining Concord Empire.

Luckily Carmila had arrived there almost two days prior, entry into the embassy would have been impossible for them otherwise (what with them being minions of a Keeper and all). From then on out a back and forth set in between them and the ambassador. As was expected of an official of one of the greatest anti-Keeper nations in The World, getting him to budge was the equivalent of getting Henry to understand the meaning of "don't touch that" (and that's saying something).

At the end of the long meeting The Party came to an agreement with the ambassador. They, the *"group of Heroes who have successfully manipulated a rather negligent Dungeon Keeper"*, need to bring back Valna with them in order to keep their cover safe, so the ambassador would pull some strings and get her released from prison. In return they would safely escort a diplomatic mission of several Fairies along with them when they return to Albion and introduce them to the mysterious islands ruling body.

Knowing the way the Shining Concord operated such a mission, while beneficial for Albion, would come at quite a cost for The Party. The Fairy were not subtle about their hatred for Keepers and if The Party let them get close to the ears of of the ruling body of Albion it would most likely strain the relationships between the Dungeon and the rest of the island. But considering their current situation - they didn't have much of a choice. All they could hope for was that their mission to bring back the connection to The Light would even out the scales enough to maintain the peace they had built up despite that.

And so the deal was struck. A day after that The Party, now with the addition of a group of seven Fairies and young and motivated High Priest named Alexander was escorted out of Byzantinopal and began their journey trough the Underworld Portals. Eventually being joined by Xana, who decided to take Henry's offer and go with them to the Dungeon, and a large portion of her brood. To this day, some people still speak of mysterious sightings of a strange cart pulled by a mighty beast and followed by an army of giant white arachnids - but that is a story for another time.

A few days of a pleasantly uneventful journey later The Party was welcomed back to Albion by their Keeper.....and then they went trough a bit of trouble.

*For some reason*, the envoy's were rather opposed to the usual method of being moved from the Portal to the Dungeon proper and were quite vocal about their refusal to be bound, chained, put in a box or taken as a prisoner in general, no matter how "temporary" it might be. Then again, maybe The Party had become to used to being bound in some way (a habit best forgotten).

Another relatively bad habit, Ril reminded himself, was the phrase "sometimes, it is easier to ask for forgiveness then it is to ask for permission". But considering how efficiently with which the transportation was done after the sleeping gas had taken effect it might be harder to kick that moto.

Shortly after, while the rest of The Party administered the smelling salts to wake up their guests and offered a warm meal to their guests (that all but one Fairy did not even eat), Merlin went to offer Xana and her brood a paid position in the Dungeon and only got one new trauma for his effort.

**Xana has joined The Party!**

Finally, at the end of their long journey, The Party and the envoys sat on the cart and created a new legend in the south of Albion - "the mysterious flying cart pulled by no steeds", and officially escorted the delegation from Zyreema to Baron Leopold (who welcomed them as a representative of Albion).

With this the quest was over and a new chapter began in the story of our heroes.

## *The decision to fight!*

### - More aftermath? Who'd have a guessed?:

With the journey to Zyreema now over it was it was time for The Party to take care of something that had, by now, become a staple of ending anything important - dealing with aftermath. So after setting apt punishments for Henry and Valna for almost murdering someone and getting that out of the way it was time to deal with their prisoner - the fearsome Cecilia Brimstone.

.....................well, she **had** been fearsome. All the way up until she met up with Henry after the whole business with the envoys was completed. After that she had turned from "fierce and cunning demonic mastery spy" right into the "fierce and cunning demonic mastery spy who apparently doubles as a babysitter". After their reunion was over and Henry recommended her she was offered the now empty positions as Head of the Information Department which she (after a myriad of phrases) accepted with the intention of spreading her web of information and keeping watch over Henry in one go.

**Cecilia Brimstone** **has joined The Party!**

The events that happened after that change depending on who you ask but the general consensus is that Henry seduced the new Department Head (and got to second base) within half a bell of her being hired. This further cemented his reputation as a ladies man and Ril began thinking about putting in some serious thought into how to restrain Henry's unbridled libido.

After a few days of business returning to the usual around the Dungeon, it became clear that another officer meeting was in order.

Shortly before the expedition returned to the Dungeon Ri's shark minions made a grand discovery - long sunk exploratory ships that belonged to the Shining Concord Empire. Salvaging the wreck and selling off some of the treasures found there managed to jump the Dungeon a good tenth of the way to their desired goal. Certainly an excellent step in the right direction but only a step at the end of the day. They would need something more concrete if they wanted to make the New Year deadline imposed on them by the Silver Dragons.

So to this end they looked at possible places where they could carry out another expedition when the subject of the now-ruined Avatar Island was brought up by a certain someone lacking a sense in tact in from of people who might be a bit sensitive to the topic of their home being laid to waste.

But the topic certainly gained some attention. Not much was known about what happened to the place after it fell to Mukrezar and for all they knew it could still hold some of the Holy Relics of the once mighty nation had proud ownership of. Any one of those could improve their research into the Holy Heart Project by leaps and bounds and, though it might be a bit painful to admit in front of some, if one of the Holy Relics had been corrupted then it could provide precious data on the corruption of powerful artifacts (data that is integral to the modification of the Dungeon Heart and the creation of the Holy Heart). Some were fascinated with the idea of getting their hands on valuables that could be auctioned off, others were enthralled with the possibilities for research while others were on edge over the possibility of returning the once mighty land to its former glory. Either way - an month long investigation was ordered.

But before the results of it would come to light a remarkable letter arrived in Jared's hands and was addressed to The Party.

"..............You are hereby formally invited to bare witness to the sanctification of the Grand Cathedral of Albion"

### - The Chapel of Albion and the blasphemous Merlin:

The Minister of Coin had been stalling. The deal was that, once a priest capable of sanctifying the land properly was brought from Zyreema to Albion, The Party would get rewarded and Garl.Co would earn the Royal Trade Permit (which would exempt them from certain trade restrictions and taxes and for allow some serious long term investments and profits according to Melissa) but the old man was one of the people in the "Anti-Merlin Faction" of the Albion government and had been coming up with excuse after excuse to put off granting them their due.

Now if "Merlin" were to make a public appearance the situation would change quite bit though. While Hongshir was the only member of The Party who was publicly know as a Hero it was indisputable that The Party had already brought Mordred to justice, fended of an invasion and brought back the means to communicate with The Light for the first time in 300 years. Suspicious or not some people on Albion were already singing praises of the "saviors of the land". Normally they would already have been invited to the royal court and have been given commendations, nay, noble tittles for what they had achieved! Lack of any news of a reward given for such heroic deeds reflects poorly on the ruling power and makes the populace displeased - something that would pressure the Minister of Coin into loosening his purse strings..

Or so Thomas and Melissa thought. The rest of The Party agreed to leave the nefarious scheming to the professionals.

There was also the added incentive of gather data on the process on purifying corruption on such a large scale in person was too much to possibly pass up. After covertly planting some samples and stuffing Herveus's breastplate with a myriad of magic measuring devices The Party put on their formal wear and made their dramatic entrance at the Sweetwater Cathedral.

Which they did. And to great effect.

The crowd parted in awe as The Party landed in front of the gate that everyone in Albion seemed to be crowding in front of, passing around hushed whispers as they flashed the guards an invitation and strode into the grounds Chapel grounds and walked in trough the church door like they owned the place.

As to what happened after that...few can say with certainty.

Henry did not take very well to the divine energy permeating the structure and so Cess (who had come there some time earlier in disguise) took him out for some fresh air. Eventually the two even had a discussion on why Henry chose to stay in the Dungeon and about his feelings for the rest of The Party (culminated by Henry openly asking Cess to investigate Ril's sexual preferences).

Hongshir and Herveus spoke to The Light and it commended them for one again making it possible for It's voice to be heard on Albion.

But as for Merlin...

It was an open secret among those who went with Ril on the Expedition to the Silver Islands that he was not exactly The Light's most devout believer. Still it was hard to for anyone to believe their eyes (and even more so their ears) when they bore witness to the robed figure of Merlin being shunted out of the church by an invisible force all the while cussing at the heavens with language so foul that mothers covered their children's ears.

But it was the massive beam of golden light bringing down judgment from on high seconds later that really made everyone drop their jaws. The fact that the cussing didn't even stop for a good few seconds even as the pillar of holy energy made the surrounding air quake made the scene all the more surreal.

Needless to say, The Party members present (Herveus and Hongshir) chose take this as their chance to take their singed-black Keeper and make take their leave (before the guards picked their jaws up from the ground and decided to stop them) vowing to pry just what, by the name of all that was holy, Ril had done **this time**.

But for that they had to wait for a good few weeks. Ril remained unconscious for the first week and only gave them half answers for some time after that but it was only once he had regained a good measure of his strength that he called The Party together and told them of the deal he had made with The Light within the cover of a white shroud made by the Spirit of the Mist.

"Alrighty then" - The young Summoner told The Force that was all around him - "Then 'ow 'bout this? I 'ave the know-'ow on 'ow to make the Dungeon Hearts and have no intention on taking your offer of "offering me a safe place in a convent of the Light far removed from this world" so 'ow 'bout you give me something else instead?"

"What is it that you desire?"

"I have always been curious 'bout those Angel feathers..."

............

It was hard for the rest of The Party to process what they just heard. The fact that he was that brazen to a God to the side (though the mere thought sent shivers down the spines of the more pious people present) Ril had, for lack of a better term, pawned off the treasured knowledge of Evil to their most hated adversary all so he could get his hands on "an unlimited supply of Angel feathers for research purposes" . To top it all off, after they had made their deal, he requested that The Light "smite him" so that he could pull the wool over the eyes of the Dark Gods (though, to be fair, even he stated that this could at best provide him with plausible deniability and would not keep him safe by any reasonable margin). He still claimed that he harbored no ill will towards The Light.

Somehow though, the rest of The Party felt that the cussing sounded way too much from the heart for it to have been a complete act act. They however, chose not to voice that thought out loud.

What exactly was going trough the Head of the Minister of the Coins's head at the end of the month was also not voiced aloud.

When The Party came knocking at his door right according to schedule he looked like he wanted to say something. But the splash the group had made a few weeks ago had not died down and he knew that he wanted them out of his office as fast as physically possible. With only two veiled threats (a new record Ril noted to himself) the Minister handed them a permit that one would usually need to go trough an elaborate and lengthy ceremony with the King to receive and polity told them to make their way out of his office, saying that the rest of their reward had been sent to them via the proper channels.

**Quest: Return the Light to Albion** = **Complete**

### - The Vow:

But their was another important part to the little meeting that they had within the white shroud conjured by the Spirit of the Mist at its Summoners behest. The rest of The Party asked a question long overdue.

"Why are you so desperate?". A simple phrase that cut Ril right down to the core. Surly, even if he had wanted to expedite the Holy Heart research, there were other, much less dangerous ways of going about it. But the choice he made made it look like getting smited by a Divinity was the **better option** of the ones he was presented. What was chasing him, nay, what had cornered him so?

The hesitation in his eyes before he answered was clear. It was the look of a person who felt guilty and afraid. Like if he told his companions everything - truly everything - they would abandon him. Just like all the people that came before them, his sorrows and his loneliness would do nothing more that widen the gap between him and other once shared.

So he braced himself, he prepared his battered heart for what was about to come and came clean.

"Because I don't have long left...."

He explained to his companions that, due to the Dungeon Hearts evil mana coursing trough him at all times he was also subject to the effects of Corruption that had laid waste to the area surrounding their Dungeon. But the Corruption that affected his body was much more subtle. He had long since noticed (using his own Analysis Magic on himself) what it did to his insides.

Mordred's memories were also a huge factor in expediting the spread. Every time he pulled on the Tyrants experience to cast Wizardry he could feel his own mana circuits moving closer to what should be the nature of the body they were in. It was the body of a Keeper after all. Wizardry, by its nature, draws power from the surrounding mana. And what mana was more available to Ril then the dark mana that permeated his existence at all times?

It was not going to kill him. Though sometimes he cursed that fact that **it could never be that easy**. Instead it made it easier for him to be a Keeper. "All" it did was make it so that it began harder to separate his own memories from Mordred's and stimulated whatever evil lurked within his own heart. His own negative feelings mixing over with the Keepers until it began getting harder to tell if his thoughts, his desires, were truly his own and which were compulsions of the Evil Heart and his own lack of willpower.

He was terrified. Slowly but steadily he was descending into a place where no voice would ever reach him again, where he would truly be alone. All he could do was struggle to remain good for as long as he could - but he would not last forever and he knew that.

Once he was done saying everything that he kept bottled up for months he stiffened up, afraid to look at the people around him. He wondered if they would turn their backs on him and leave him to his fate, or end him right then and there and do The World a favor.

So imagine his surprise...

"Ril listen to us" - Herveus and and and opened eyed Henry said.

...when world itself....

"On my whatever is left of my honor as a Knight and on my very being to assist you in your quest to regain your soul."

"I don't make promises usually you know? But when I do I keep them. We are your friends Ril, and we will not abandon you" - Henry added.

....became a warm place.

### - The Spirit Quest:

Ril found getting smited an interesting experience. And no, he was not developing Valna-esque fetishes. It could have been worse. With some (a lot of) specially made ointments made by Nurgle the burns should heal with time.

In hindsight he should have expected being crippled for a few weeks, The Light **did** say that was not accustomed to deception so it wasn't exactly pulling pulling any punches. "Some aching" was to be expected.

But the clearheadedness was not expected. Somehow his thoughts were not cluttered like they have been recently and he no longer felt like everybody was out to get him. He supposed that it spoke volumes about him when feeling well in any way somehow made him more worried then second degree but it no longer caught him by surprise.

It was only once he began being capable of using his own magic that he became aware that he might need to get Hongshir to throw in a word of thanks to The Light the next time he prayed.

Analysis magic reveled that nearly all the taint caused by his bond with the Dungeon Heart within him had been purified when The Light brought the metaphorical hammer down on him. This gave him a chance.

After meeting with The Party, reveling his bodies true condition and being met not with disdain or abandonment put with trust and camaraderie (the events in *The Vow*), Ril hardened his resolve. He would stand resolute. He has comrades at his sides, there was no way he was going to lose to himself.

So he redid his training from the ground up. He unwound the threads of power in his body and disassembled all of his magic circuits not related to his, and only his, Magic. Mordred's memories were still necessary but learning his magic made his sense of "self" waver. He needed to make it clear that he was not like Mordred and never will be and if the price for that was discarding his ability to use Wizardry then so be it.

His body took to the new training regiment like a fish to water. It was its "natural state" after all. The Sorcerous power ebbed and flowed with in him in a way that felt as natural as breathing and by the time he they had returned with the permit granted to them by the Minister of the Coin his senses as a Summoner had become noticeably sharper.

So of course, the Angel Feather, he had gotten from Herveus and Henry (who went to pick up the promised article from the newly sanctified Chapel of The Light) sent all of his senses go abuzz. Well, those senses and his senses as a Dungeon Keeper. The latter of which gave him an intense desire to throw the metal box containing the sacred item right of off a cliff. he had been used to feeling unpleasantness due to Holy Light before but the the difference in scale between walking into a church and slightly opening that box to take a peek inside was the equivalent to the difference in scale of having an itchy nose and having a red hot rod forcibly lodged down your throat.

But it was well worth it. If the feather was had at least one tenth of the power he had read about within the journals of adventurers he had in his private library then this one item could not only accelerate their Holy Heart research by at least a few years but also could more then likely be used to help the ailing Granny Hill (giving him answers to some questions which had been gnawing at him ever since the the Land God mumbling in a half delusional state).

Though whether it actually helped or not was another question. He was taking it to her "spirit body" within her realm and not using it on the actually land which suffered under his Dungeons constant exhaust after all. He had hoped it would at least get her to a state where he could get some real conversation done....

(*Sounds of ten thousand suns bursting forth from a completely opened container as Ril accidentally drops it in Granny Hill's cottage*)

Alright. That happened.

After entering the cottage again after reflexively teleporting away in a knee jerk reaction to searing divine radiance Ril saw the being known, respected and feared on Albion as The Lord of the Southern Mountains: Granny Hill.

From that point onward the initiative (and the chance to hold a discussion not about how he had been, and still is, jamming the land full of dark power) was taken out of his hand and he was given a chance to prove the honesty of his intentions.

He would follow the path leading from the cottage and bring back a certain flower for her without using any of his powers. And if he should refuse....well that part was left to his imagination.

So Ril put over his back a cloak that Granny Hill gave him and set forth.

At first it was nothing more then a brisk afternoon walk down a winding forest path but it did not take long for the mystical aspects of this quest to come into view. Why **could it never be easy?**

The day shifted into night with and unnatural stealth and the clear sky got replaced with a snowstorm the likes of which it was too early in the year for. How long had he been walking? Where was he going? What kind of flower possibly grows in a place like this?!

But he persevered. This level of cold was nothing compared to the realm of The Queen of Cold Air and Darkness and his fatigue was nowhere near Herveus "energetic" training regiment levels. Like heck he was going to lose to an some frozen high speed water after all he had been trough so far.

Eventually, he reached a cabin amidst the snow. The middle aged couple living there offered him hospitality and a place to rest his weary body and even went as far as to offer some of what little warm food they had to their half frozen guest. They told him of their plight, how the woman was with child and how food had been ruining short for the winter. To make matters worse their cottage was at least a 3 days walk from the nearest church made by a healthy man. The woman here was clearly bedridden and weak from nourishment and there was little chance for her to make a journey like that even with help. They needed some fresh food and they needed it urgently. Luckily for Ril (who had at that moment pondered whether he should or should not abandon his Spirit Quest in lieu of helping the couple in front of him) the husband told him there was a place nearby which probably had some food - but whether they would share it with the couple was another matter.

There was, according to the locals, a mysterious mansion on top of the nearby hill that seemed to defy the changes of season. It's garden always in bloom all year long and its walls always pristine. In the first place, the reason why there had been no one else living near here other then the couple was because they avoided this very mansion. But the couple, not wealthy enough to purchase land anywhere else, had little choice then to settle down here.

That was clearly the place he needed to be - Ril thought to himself. No better place to find an out of season flower for a mystical Land God then a clearly mystical garden. To make things even better, if he got them to share some of their food with the couple then he could help them and still be able to finish his quest within the bounds of its rules.

After chugging down the last of his soup, the young man made haste towards the "mansion at the top of the hill".

There he met his first and greatest obstacle: a locked door and high walls.

What? He was not allowed to use magic. These are pretty big obstacles by an average persons standards.

But no wall, no matter how high, could stand up to the physical fitness pounded into Ril by his bouts with the Horned Reaper and his training under the most spartan of skeletons. After getting only a few decently sized bruises during the fall he successfully infiltrated the garden.

Technically this was burglary and he doubted the owner would be happy seeing some random stranger in a ragged cloak on his/her property but if they had wanted proper notice they would have answered him when he was knocking at the front gate. Yes. That was the defense he was going with.

But to his disbelief there was no "flower" in the garden (though there was a cornucopia of out of season vegetables and fruits). Still, he felt bad about the idea of just stealing vegetables and leaving so he decided to try knocking and seeing if anybody was home.

No answer.

Next he tried entering trough the back door which had, he noticed, been left carelessly unlocked.

No answer.

Then he walked around trough the mansion calling out the see if any of the residents who had, by the signs left around the place, been there only recently still remains.

Still no answer.

My, how unlucky for Ril. It appears as though whoever was here had left only recently, leaving him with no choice then to wait for them outside. Well on the bright side, it could have been worse. Someone could walk in right now and panic as they saw a strange man walking trough their house.....

(*sounds of shrill screaming as a female servant walks in on priorly mentioned strange man skulking trough the mansion*)

....He didn't even say that one out loud. What kind of star had he been born under?

Well a fair amount of explaining later to the group of men and women who introduced themselves as the staff of the house managed to get him out of trouble. He was even introduced to the lady of the house who even offered to help out her neighbors of her own accord when she heard of their plight.

So Ril, happy that he succeeded in getting the couple help and forgetting what his original objective was, escorted the lady and some of the mansion workers and introduced them to the couple at the bottom of the hill.

It was then that the lady, who had auspiciously stated her profession was on the side of the supernatural, offered to assist the couple and their still to be born child by becoming the little ones god parent.

Only then, just as he was about to offer the couple a promise of gratitude in return for the hospitality shown to him did the young man notice that this story no longer had a place for him.

The actors no longer acknowledged he was there, the scenery of the cabin faded away and all that was left Ril standing amidst a small cemetery before two tombstones, barely illuminated by a small glowing flower that was sprouting from the snow that cast a pale blue light over their inscriptions. They read:

"*Here lie **Callum and Abigail Veius**, Loving and kind parents. May they rest in peace*"

....It took him a while to gather his composure. But he smiled eventually. Ril had never met his grandparents and always wondered what they were like.

"So they were good people huh?.............Thank you for the soup...........It was great.........thank you for the one night that you welcomed me as one of your own."

"Thank you Gradpa, Grandma. Goodbye."

And with a bow, he plucked the flower from in front of their graves and as he turned to face a small winding trail he had come to recognize he almost felt as if he had heard something in the wind.

With his luck, it was probably just his ears playing tricks on him but tonight - he did have any such thought.

### - Galakataths trump card:

It started off as a pleasant day in the loud, murky halls of Keeper Merlin's Dungeon, made even more pleasant for many because of said Keeper's current absence. Herveus, for example, decided to research the goings on around Zyreema, more specifically, the sisters he once worked for after becoming a Death Knight and the friends he had before his transformation into one of the living dead..

His friends were, overall, doing quite well. Some of them even started a group to help aid against the Keeper menace. As far as the four sisters went, the there was no mention of the two youngest sisters but the two eldest however, had both come under the employ of Dungeon Keepers. Virla, in fact, had joined with someone rather familiar...

Keeper Galakatath.

Upon discovering this unsettling news Herveus dug deeper and discovered that Galakatath had been on a spree as of late, attacking more then a few Halfling villages and showing no sign of slowing down. After a discussion with Henry and Hongshir it wasn't long before the Trinity of H set out with Calvin and a small band of archers set out to track down Galakatath and put an end to his wrong doing. It took quite effort time to pinpoint where his forces were as he quickly moved them from one village to the next with seemingly no pattern but, eventually, they caught up to them just as they were assailing a village. Hongshir was the first to action dashing towards the village and leaving his companions in the dust, arriving just in time to spot a Halfling with a blade to his throat as he watched dark elves carry away his wife and daughter. Hongshir, with a flying kick he saved the man and deftly moved to save his family.

Meanwhile, Herveus had divided up the allied archers into 3 teams of 10 with each team instructed to support a member of The Trinity and instructed Calvin to find a good position to find a good position and get to work. Herveus then took his group and moved to join Hongshir in the village, all the while Calvin found a tall tree to sleep on and Henry remained on the hill overlooking the village so that he could "observe the battlefield from a strategically sound position" and set up a magical field to aid in the detection and tracking of any teleportation magic.

It didn't take long for the party to slowly start shifting the battle in their favor. Even when the enemy brought out hostages Henry distracted them long enough with a giant Merlin Mask projection for his friends to save the day. But it was then that they discovered why those other villages had fallen so quickly...

...Galakatath had acquired a female Horned Reaper...

Fortunately, the Trinity of H did not falter at the sight. Knowing first hand the danger a Horned Reaper posed Hongshir and Herveus prepared for the fight of their lives while Henry distracted the red she-beast using some well placed illusion magic. And while the Reaper was distracted by the giant Merlin mask in the sky and the roaring flames at her feet Hongshir and Herveus performed a combination attack so intense, so resoundingly powerful, **so amazingly epic** that it must never be written down (in order to preserve the sanity of the reader) and which was also so **earth-shatteringly devastating** that before she even got a chance to wreak havoc she was retrieved by her Keeper in as he ordered an all out retreat. But no matter how fast they wanted to get out of there they could not move faster then Henry, whose ward had acquired the information he'd been waiting throughout the fight for - the coordinates to what my well be Galakataths Dungeon.

After that Henry reunited with his companions who were aiding in the cleanup after the battle. Though before long they had to leave as they saw another army approach from the distance (who would likely be much less cooperative than the Halflings) and so The Party left the village and met up with Cess gathered together and set out back towards the dungeon. However, they were intercepted by a single dark mistress...Virla!

Daughter to Moslyeas, she had come to confirm if the Death Knight her comrades had fought was indeed Herveus who and to confront him once and for all about the death of her mother.

One short conversation later and knives flew towards The Party. The confrontation was brief, a wise decision on Henry's part and a resourceful use of his *light spell* on Virla's clothes disabled her spell that allowed her to move trough shadows and, without a means of getting away, she was almost momentarily subdued by the combined effort of the Trinity of H.

Needless to say she was not all that pleased. A bit of back and forth fired between her and Henry until Herveus put a stop to it and told Virla the truth of his involvement in her mothers death and let her leave, warning her that if they should meet on the battlefield like this again - they would be enemies.

He did not hate Moslyeas's daughters no matter how horrible of an individual the Keeper was. Part of him wondered if he was making the right choice.

But there was no time for such thoughts. A telepathic message arrived for the group.

Their Keeper had returned and was waiting for them in their Dungeon.

## *The final battle against Galakatath*

### - Shooting into the night:

It was a dark (and probably stormy) night, most of the Dungeons diurnal inhabitants were settling down for the night and then....

**BANG!!!**A thunderous crash echoed throughout the halls and Ril was stirred from his sleep by the Dungeon's alarm warning him it was under attack. "That attack was from inside the dungeon" he must have thought as raced to get himself dressed "How could somebody not only find us but get in without being noticed!?" He hastily teleported to the source of the attack, the archery range to find...... Henry with a pipe in his hand staring at hole in the wall.

After inquiring as to what in the "bloody f\*\*k" happened Henry informed him of the experiment he had been carrying out an experiment in which he'd ended up placing an arrowhead in a pipe and concentrating pressure crash in a cone to fire it out. The result: a very deep hole in the Dungeon wall.

Ril, displeased by this, decided to go down the range and repair the wall and was even more displeased by the loud bang accompanied by an arrowhead shooting by his head. Apparently, the large warning signs that explicitly state "do not use the archery range while there are people walking in the lanes" was not clear enough for Henry. Bu before he turned around to smack him upside the head with the pipe he was caught unawares by his bandanna floating down to the ground and exposing his elven ears to all present. Herveus, who had heard the first bang and wished to investigate, entered just in time see Ril bubbling with growing rage and frustration before quickly teleporting away as soon as he began hearing whispers about his ears being thrown around.

He did not leave his garden for the remainder of the night.

Mutters and whispers slowly began to filled the room as Henry explained to Herveus what happened. Intrigued by Henry's experiment  Herveus suggest that a blow gun dart would make for better ammunition. They called over a Dark Elf handed her the pipe and had her take aim as Henry's arms stretched passed her torso ready to cast the spell.

It was a success!..... ignoring the fact the pipe flew out of the elfs hand and was bent out of shape by the sheer pressure. "I'm never going to live this down" spoke the elf "Then we shall allow you to decide who will test it next" Herveus replied "Oh don't get me wrong if you're making a new weapon I want to be a part of it".

At that moment Henry was whisked away by Ril to the magical land of his room and given a fairly short deadline in his work on the Dungeon Heart mk.2 (and orders to quit blowing holes in walls during the night). This is a fortunate to the Wizard as Herveus was, not even a few minutes late, bullied by the Horned Reaper for not taking him with the party on their previous outing, warning him not to leave him behind once more.

*The next day...*

Herveus made a trip to the craft drawing up a few possible designs and then making a prototype of something sturdier to contain than a metal pipe to hold the ammunition to be launched by the "Pressure Shot" spell and immediately searched for Henry to test it. He did not get the chance however, as the second he entered his sight Henry asked Herveus to escort him to Zyreema with the mute brain.

They arrived just in time to see Ril and Shambles installing eyestalks in brain tanks that would allow them to see for the first time in many years (though their reaction was underwhelming). Henry used Herveus as a hiding spot until Ril left, not wanting to irritate him any further and after a conversation, they decided to take not only the other brains but also Sonia.

"How are we going to leave the Dungeon?" A question Henry didn't want to hear right now to avoid direct contact with Ril he donned an old disguise (a purple dress and some make-up) to hide his identity with the intention to trick Ril. This failed miserably, however they soon found themselves in one of Zyreemas savannas.

The trip proved fruitful, you see over his previous lessons with Jacker there were a number of inconsistencies in his behavior which Henry pressed him on he remained calm to begin with. but eventually, Henry talked him into a corner "If you don't have anything to hide why are you so defensive?" Henry asked and with a raised voice "I'm not getting defensive! Anyway let's return to the lesson" but Henry had one last jab to make "Your mask is cracking it's only a matter of time before it crumbles" He must have struck a nerve because remained silent afterwards.

Standing in the cool winter savanna Henry reached into his mind and scanned for Jackers presence which previously had been weak on Zyreema, but not this time "Are you there Jacker?" "Yes, I am here." Came the reply that gave Henry the proof he needed that Jacker was not in the anklet at all but was instead in the jar with the silent brain.

Or was he? you see something strange occurred one of the other brains responded to the conversation, he could hear Jacker, Henry turned "Are you who you say you are?" He asked "Yes, of course I am!... They had responded in unison, with the same words there was something more to this than Henry had originally anticipated but he'd delved deep enough for one day and so he and Herveus took the brains for walk answering any questions they had.

When they returned to the Dungeon an officer meeting was held discussing the in which their strategy for battling Galakatath was after the meeting ended a trip was made to the church to collect another angel feather, after which The Party decided to meet with the ambassadors of Shining Concord Empire to discuss the scavenged supplies found in the wreaks of some exploration ships. Unfortunately due to the unfamiliarity of scheduling an meeting, as most were unannounced, they couldn't meet with them at the time. So they left a message for them about the supplies to the guard at their residence for when they come back.

The Party then decide to head to the capitol of the region where they battled the Horned Reaper before to assist/observe their army.

### - Of Eagles and Thorns:

When arriving, The Party noticed some adventurers camped outside the city and the various guards organizing the people. Two groups of adventurers standing out in particular due to their very recognizable emblems. The Party was quite surprised to see not only the Silver Eagles, the acclaimed union of adventurers, but also the Raventhorns, the adventurer group formed around Herveus's former comrades.

Needless to say they had Herveus's full attention, he quickly excused himself and began to stealthily follow some of the Raventhorns back to their base, to find out if any of his had comrades arrived, finding out (via some covert eavesdropping) that their main force is arriving later due to a diplomatic troubles traveling through the Green Vale.

Meanwhile the rest of The Party began their search of information around the town. Henry finds himself a Hobbit bard and starts asking for information. Arnold, the aforementioned bard, tells them about Darik, one of the Heroes among the Raventhorns, recounting some of his numerous accomplishments that included the slaying of an Elder Dragon and filling in The Party on Galakatath's recent activities.

After Herveus met back up with The Party, they decided to head to the Raventhorns and offer to aid them in their efforts by providing them with some of the provisions that they would certainly come to need in the coming battle. The Raventhorn lieutenant was suspicious of the party's intentions at first, but due to Ril's (who was going incognito under the fake name "Dale") persuasion they accepted the offer of supply aid.

While leaving the inn, Henry pointed out that he noticed Herveus react strangely to the name Darik and he wondered why did so. Herveus then told them that Darik was his Knight Lieutenant from when he was a Holy Knight Officer. The Party then went back to Arnold to get more information on the Silver Eagles, but mostly to hear the "Hyme of Darik the Dragon Ripper". Arnold then recommends to head towards a tavern so he can get more of an audience. The Party agreed.

Not satisfied with a simple show of lyre and song Henry proposed a "light show" to go with the Hymes and starts make caricatures of light combating in the air. This went on for quite a few songs and by the end festivities peak half of the adventurers in town had arrived to take part in the merriment, among them the group of Silver Eagles that The Party saw earlier and wanted to negotiate with. Henry saw the opportunity and, just to get them in a more agreeable mood, so to get on their good side, Henry buys a round of drinks on the house.

To best sum up Dale's attempt to use bargaining to persuade them was... unexpectedly poor. So they went with *Plan B* - Henry giving them an ego trip. Saying that the situation ended rather smoothly would be an understatement. Caught up in their own pride, the secretaries of the Silver Eagles proclaimed that they would raise the bounty even further paying directly from the guild's own coffers, something that would serve to get far more adventurers and guild members motivated.

For the next couple of days, more and more volunteers arrived, preparations were made and plans were discussed behind closed doors. Herveus, feeling nervous, returned back to the dungeon to organize their own logistics and strategies, meanwhile Keeper Merlin and Henry used their abilities to stealthily protect the arriving reinforcements from ambushes.

In what appeared to be a fortunate event, the Raventhorn force arrived earlier then expected, prompting "Dale" and Henry to welcome them and hand over the the supplies that had been teleported to a nearby rented storehouse. The person in charge didn't react too well to the two suspicious strangers who wouldn't give up the identity of their generous employer. "Dale" nearly freaked out when he learned that this person was the legendary Raid Leader and Commander of Raventhorn - Darik himself.

The army settled in and the tent city around the Hobbit town grew even further.

The next morning, Ril and Henry were rudely woken up by an enraged Darik. "Where is John Smith?!" he bellowed. Through gnarls that only vaguely resembled words or even coherent sentences, he growled out that the Holy Knight called John Smith still owed him money and had been running from this debt for years. He then attempted to interrogate the two magic users one more time about their connection to the elusive knight and their mysterious employer. When he invaded Ril's personal space to grab him by the collar, Bark jumped out of the shadows to protect his master. After the short but heavy exchange of blows that completely wracked the room, Darik effectively puts them under arrest, forcing them to "volunteer" to join Raventhorn under his direct supervision.

Because "Dale" admits he isn't able to cast even the simplest of spells, he is put with the other rookies to do menial jobs. By the end of a day full of hard work and struggle his valiant efforts to help resulted in him being famed for having two left hands - or being plain incompetent.

Henry on the other hand is told to assist Raventhorn's wizards with their scrying. Having learned this skill from the world foremost experts of this field, he easily exceeded all expectations, putting even the group leader to shame with his expertise. It also helped that he had read the reports from the Dungeon's Intelligence Department and already knew what Raventhorn was looking for and where to find it. Soon he had half the wizards swooning around him and bombarding him with questions about his technique he gladly answered while the military leaders were impressed by the valuable intel he'd provided them with.

In the evening Ril, feeling sore and completely spent, still needed to contact his Dungeon to inform them of the hasted assault plans, but the soldiers watching his every move made this very difficult. So under the pretense that he needed to get some of his things from the inn, he got back to town - but not without an rookie Tom acting as his escort right in toe. Fortunately for Ril it took only some kind words and a few drinks before Tom dropped his guard and Ril could sneak away to contact Thomas and tell him to send out the heavy hitters. The attack on Galakatath's Dungeon was about to start the next day.

On their way sneaking back into the camp they ran straight into Darik who wasn't pleased in the slightest to see his soldier too drunk to stand and ordered "Dale" to clean up his mess.

After a short and not very restful night Ril and Henry crossed paths with an Elf who had her nose buried deeply in a book. She introduced herself as Iris, second in command of this army, although she didn't act like a figure of authority at all. Instead she made some idle chit chat with the two and even shared some private information about Darik. Throughout the conversation Ril was feeling uncomfortable and struggled not to stare at the Elf's pointy ears. When he was later called out on that by Henry, he futilely denied everything.

But The Party could only keep up their carefree attitudes for so long, the tension rising when the combined force of Raventhorn and the Silver Eagles began their march on Galakatath's Dungeon. It did not help that The Party was now thoroughly split up and miles away from each other.

"Dale" was, after confronting Darik about his forced conscription (in a way that it took a good three people to separate the two before a fight broke out in the middle of the camp), dragged right along his (now fuming with rage) commanding officer right at the head of the main force.

Herveus, unable to get in touch with Ril, was now giving the commanding the team made up of: Count Shambles, Ogin, Calvin, the Horned Reaper as left the Dungeon and used the Portal Network to reach Zyreema.

Finally, Henry Mason sat amidst the Wizards of Raventhorn as they preformed magical reconnaissance of Galakatath's domain within the command tent in the Hobbit city of Groenburg.

### - The Hero of Groenburg:

The command tent was filed with experienced Raventhorn and Silver Eagle commanders arguing about the next best course of action while Wizards and scurried back and forth relaying the results of their magical reminiscence, yet one single person there just sat and calmly moved his fingers over the crystal ball without any tension whatsoever.

To Henry Mason, the sparks flying between the two factions were of little importance. He answered the commanders requests for information with a equal level of precision and focus regardless of the insignia the inquirer bore. The battle to come had him much more concerned.

There was something very wrong about the way things had been going. The army had was almost halfway to Galakatath's Dungeon yet there were barely any incursions with the enemy. This was Galakatath after all, Henry was not acquainted with him as long as the rest of The Party but but as far as he was aware the muscled oaf had about enough brain between his ears that he was capable of yelling "charge" and smacking any minion unfortunate enough to be within arms reach when things did not go the way he planed - that Galakatath was trying to lure his enemies in?

There was something very wrong about......

*\*RUMBLE\**

This might have been the one time Henry felt bad about intuition being so on point all he time. He guided the scrying sensor over the city only to witness entire buildings caving into the ground on the other side of town, the resulting series of quakes sending pointy wizard hats flying even all the way in the command tent.

It was not unheard of for a Keeper to make use of their extraordinary mobility to attack on multiple fronts but Galakatath committing to an attack of this scale while an army is knocking on his door had completely caught the few that made up the detached force in Groenburg completely off guard. Silver Eagle and Raventhorn alike were shouting at each other, trying to figure out whether they should protect the civilians or evacuate the city, demanding for the Wizards to tell them what was going on and what was causing the havoc within the city.

Until they were all cut off by the white haired wizard shouting out:

"It's not a *Tremor* spell. It is happening in secession to fast, It can't be a long range spell either, there is too little mana in the air for that to be the case!"

It took a moment for a Raventhorn lieutenant to respond, not only to his matter-of-fact statement, but also to the fact that he just managed to get the full attention of two dozen panicking individuals with just a few words.

".....So? Is that it?! We still don't know what is hitting us, and until we know that we can't move respond!"

As soon as the lieutenant gasped out that statement Henry wasted no time. Without any hesitation he made a heel turn and dashed towards the source of the destruction, running out of the tent and into the clouds of dust created by the collapsing buildings. Running until he was wheezing for air and narrowly dodging falling rubble he managed to get above the source of the tremors and use his magic to discover the true nature of the force that was attacking them - a small army of Dungeon Keeper Imps burrowing bellow the ground!

He also discovered that, judging by the sight of Dark Elves steadying their weapons at him, they also brought with them enemy forces that had already made their way into Groenburg. Before he was allowed to even catch his breath he found himself running towards the campsite, ducking crossbow fire for dear life.

Narrowly escaping all but one of the arrows (which he judged to have missed anything too important based on him still being able to move) he reunited with some of the Raventhorn Wizards that had taken shelter within a sturdy building, using the basement to hide from the enemy.

But that was clearly not the time to be just hiding. With a few well chosen words and almost cheery attitude that made those he spoke to regain their composure he rallied the people around him and convinced them to support his daring plan. Together, Henry and the Wizards took crystal balls in hand and, thanks to Henry's leadership and *message* spell (that he learned after coming to the Dungeon), they got in touch with the scattered forces of Raventhorn and the Silver Eagles all over Groenburg and not only told them of their findings and of the enemies numbers - but also relayed information and orders between them.

With their combined effort the tables had been turned on Galakatath's troops. Discovering the exact locations of the enemy and leading their own troops to encircle and defeat them one group at a time Henry had managed to completely change the initiative of the battle against the Keeper.

After a grueling effort that left more then a few Wizards wrung dry of mana the enemy had been routed.

Defense of Groenburg: **Good forces Victory.**

### - Herveus's assault:

The calls were not going trough. A bad sign.

Herveus had received word that Ril and Henry had been taken in by Raventhorn but he was not expecting them to be watching them so closely that using the crystal ball to communicate was made impossible. Then again, if his suspicions were correct and a certain one of his former companions had shown up with their main force that would explain a lot...

But thinking about that is needless, Herveus concluded. Whatever the situation the minion bond was firmly in place and he had received no emergency message so they were probably all right. He would just have to follow trough with the battle plan on his own initiative.

Herveus was tasked with leading a strike force into Galakatath'sDungeon and softening their defenses so the forces of Good would have an easier time breaking in and reaching Galakatath's Dungeon Heart. Another of his objectives was to make it to the hostages and secure them so they would not be harmed during the ensuing battle. This results of this operation could very well tip the scales and change the outcome of the conflict as a whole but was very dangerous. Knowing that he would be going straight into enemy territory Herveus only brought a select team of elites with him.

Herveus, followed by Count Shambles, Ogin, Calvin and the Horned Reaper, all crossed the threshold of the Portal and stepped onto Zyreema soil prepared for the fight of their lives...........but not prepared for an alarm being sounded just as they exited the Portal.

Galakatath would be aware they were coming now, and losing the element of surprise was not something Herveus was happy about, but the plan had to move on regardless.

After laying low for a while the strike team moved out at the appointed time and began their assault. Evading trap after trap and bursting their way past any enemies (or walls for that matter) that stood in their way.

But once again things did not go as planned, due to Galakatath's timely use of Keeper Hand and a very large amount of debris, the team soon found themselves separated from another and left to their own devices.

It was then that Herveus met with Galakatath's hulking general Grunka once more. Once more did the two do battle, the corridors of the Dungeon shaking as they exchanged blows. Herveus found himself disadvantaged within the confined space, and met with his equal in both speed and power, narrowly managed to claim victory thanks to the arrival of Ogin and Calvin. Grunka was teleported away by her Keeper before the final blow was about to be struck, minimising his losses and evacuating his minions from the area.

For even he knew better than to leave his minions near the site of a battle between Horned Reapers. And so Ogin opened the gate allowing Herveus and the rest of the group through but as the gate fell he heard the clucking of a chicken "Ogin, open the door" commanded Herveus, the door opened and Red was saved from the fate if being his rivals meal as the she-reaper caught sight of the very Death Knight who not long ago completely humiliated her before she even had a chance to fight. Infuriated and excited at the possibility of revenge she charged at him. "Ogin, close the door!" not was the door closed but it was closed at just the right time for the she-reaper to get her horns stuck just long enough for Red to change back from being a chicken.

And so off went the group to save Galakatath's prisoners.

### - A New Beat Rocks the Stage:

Gilgamesh was a simple Demon, get kicked out by your folks, go on tour, rock out, find inspiration in a drunken bar brawl rock out some more. One day whilst grabbing a drink he caught wind of a couple of tough guys and a horned reaper who presumably were heading off to tussle with Galakatath who also had Reaper, now this was something ol' Gil just *had* to see.

He grabbed his axe (weapon turned instrument) and set out through the portal onto Zyreema making an attempt to track down the soon to be battlefield. It is not long before poor Gilgamesh hears the bellowing of a horn, giving him just enough time to dodge the arrows that then came his way. Quickly assuming the guise of a human who had been hit in the shoulder and was soon able to see his assailant approaching, a Raventhorn scout named Josh.

Pretending to be in a bad way from his injury Gil tried to get on Josh's good side whilst the scout attempted to interrogate the man who appeared to have horns, not a moment ago. This conversation was not going Gil's way so he decided to attempt his last resort... Playing dead. His performance was convincing and the Josh was thoroughly convinced that he may have just killed an innocent man out of paranoia. Indeed, he *would* have gotten away with it, if only the scout didn't believe in recycling it would have never been revealed the Gilgamesh had never been shot in the first place.

There was only one thing left to do, not even wanting to stand up the rocker log rolled away into a bush and the scout gave chase... only to overshoot said bush drop off a cliff and roll into an Underworld portal. Once again Gilgamesh's luck shone through. Wanting a little company he disguised himself as Josh and waited for the scouts friends to arrive, he probably would have fooled them too, if not for the fact that he was wearing entirely different clothes, slight oversight.

Knowing that he isn't getting out of this so easily, so when they demanded to know what he had done to their friend he made an attempt to lessen the severity of his punishment by yelling "It wasn't my fault!" some more back and forth and a retrieval of Josh later they returned to the main group.

After binding Gil's hands they set him before the priest who reveals that he is a demon to the rest of the group and also suppresses his powers before setting him before Darik to be interrogated further. The only thing this achieves is making Darik both angry by the devil spawn's lack of cooperation and excited at the revelation that there will be two Horned Reapers at their destination rather than one, and so not wanting to waste any more time the group sets forth once more.

A small while later the come across a boulder blocking their path and while a few Raventhorns set forth to attempt dealing with it Darik called a short officer meeting and when he returned he was informed that the boulder could not be moved. Though "Dale" disagreed, garnering an insult from Darik. Dale no doubt took satisfaction in throwing Dariks words back in his face by calling on Granny Hill to produce a large rocky and *throw* the boulder away.

They continue on for a while longer Ril and Gil making conversation along the way becoming wary when they don't come across the ambush they were expecting, eventually, Darik hears a cheery disembodied voice asking him to take out his crystal ball once he does so Henry informs him that the city was attacked, so he'll be only one that can support him but that there were minimal casualties. Darik asked to speak with Iris who gave him a brief yet efficient report notably stating that Henry was a key part in their speedy success.

After handing the conversation back over to Henry, Darik asks him to scry the path ahead, after which he is told that there was another group in the Dungeon who not only cleared a path for them but also busted the gate down. Henry signs out assuring Darik he'll be keeping an eye on his group.

Meanwhile...

After bulldozing through some of Galakatath's minions Herveus and the gang came to a large room and gate that was room to a good handful of dead or unconscious minions unfortunately, Shambles had neglected to open said gate, So Herveus readied his axe, Ogin braced his fists and Calvin went to find a safe corner to nap in.

After it making it into the Dungeon's prison area they encountered Shambles eagerly releasing hobbit prisoners. These prisoners are scared of Herveus but thankfully smitten by Ogin who by their request agreed to lead them to safety.

Herveus and Shambles before hearing the screams of Hobbits under attack on almost all sides by minions and Ogin doing his best to defend them, but Ogin is only one man. Herveus quickly rushes to the rescue quickly bashing through a shield and mounting a successful counterattack. The minions who were not knocked flat by this quickly turned tail and ran which infuriated Galakatath enough to warrant a retaliatory lightning strike.

Henry calls Herveus warning him the Raventhorn strike force is on their way and that he should pull out before swapping over to Darik and informing him that the other group had rescued the prisoners and were on their way out and that there were two clashing reapers. This got him excited enough to rush on ahead, and when the rest of the strike force reached the stairs they split up one group taking the path to the right the second (containing Gil n' Ril) heading down the stairs.

Darik jumping into the ring manages to sink his dual axes into Red's back, Ril rushing in tries to "subtly" run in out he's distracted long enough to get hit again, the she-Reaper is pulled out just in time for Darik to rather clearly hear Red say "Yes my Keeper"

Meanwhile, Gilgamesh is able to trick his nervous babysitter into unchaining before quickly taking him hostage so he wouldn't be run through by the rest of the group, he apologized on the way out of course, he'd never take hostage if he didn't have to, mind you that wouldn't have stopped the nice Raventhorns at the door from turning nasty which is why Gil had to turn run and powerslide all the way to balcony at the other end of the battle pit just in time to slam straight into Herveus

And after some reassurance that the voices in his head telling him *not* to fight the spooky scary skeleton was Henry and not him going crazy Henry tells Herveus not to worry about Ril for now and that if needed he'll be called back and to take Gil with him.

**Gil has become a guest!!**

And so the two left leaving Ril as the only one of the three (Ril, Herveus, Henry) who still had a good deal of work to do... Thankfully he had Henry's attention.

Henry, seeing Ril in a pinch, uses the Message spell to converse with Red to give him a choice: stay and fight the weaker unit of humans **or** chase down the female Horned Reaper. To the irritated Red who was itching for a rematch with the other Demon, it was not even close to a choice. He jumped up to the balcony and ran off, leaving a everyone on the battlefield gasping for air, baffled and elated at his disappearance.

After a few moments, Herveus and Gilgamesh have a small chat while leaving the Hobbits behind to get saved by the Raventhorns. While they were heading to the Treasury, discussing their plan of escaping with some of the treasure, they hit the library. Curious, Count Shambles heads towards the library making Herveus to head inside with him. When investigating it was... as expected of Galakatath's library. Just basic knowledge.

Meanwhile Ril seeing how the big, heavy door seems too large to push, he decided to form a large staircase that went straight to the balcony using a spell summon from Granny Hill. While attempting to head up the stairs, coming down were the Halflings, that were captured, running to safety. Ril, seeing how his idea of the mission success was already accomplished, he goes over to Darik and pleads/demands him to let him go for the amount he helped with the journey, and the fact that he wasn't much of a front line fighter anyways. Darik accepts the request and releases him from his command. Ril so pleased he accepted his plea, starts making his way back up the surface. That was until a small imp with red glowing eyes appeared before him.

Between foul curses and threats Galakatath, in imp form, accuses "Dale" of being a minion for Keeper Merlin, just before the body he was wearing was struck down by a well placed arrow. Still the damage had been done and "Dale" was brought before a furious Darik for questioning once again. Ril tries to talk himself out of the mess but Darik is determined that "Dale" is indeed a minion.

Herveus, after Henry messaged him of Ril's pickle, rushes towards Ril's location as fast as he could. Leaving the rest of the infiltration squad to journey towards the treasury without him. As they neared the treasury, Gilgemesh notice a large room that housed a giant winch, but chose to ignore it for the moment and continued on to seek out the treasure.

Bursting through the hallway, grabbing everyone's attention, Herveus arrives to aid Ril. Darik, In response to Herveus busting in, barks out the order to kill the Death Knight. Herveus intimidates the troops of Raventhorn to stand down and let him pass through, but he couldn't persuade Darik to release him and "Dale". In response to a remark from Herveus, Darik lunges out causing Ril to call upon the *Hand of the Mountain Goddess* again to break the ground beneath their very feet. Despite the chaos of the three of them falling to the lower level, Darik continued a furious assault as they landed right in front of the giant gates that block the way to Galakatath's inner sanctum.

Due to Henry's continuous thought sending to Darik, they manage to make him calm down long enough to explain to him that the Death Knight is indeed Herveus. Through a conversation of nostalgia and the ironing out of details, Herveus convinces Darik that it is indeed him. After a moment of breathless silence, Henry sends a message saying "You know you guys are near the Dungeon Heart, right?" which makes Ril, Herveus, and Darik notice the Heart beating across the lava lake.

The three make a truce and begin heading towards the heart. Noticing arrow slits near the gate, Ril uses his Granny Hill summon to make a dust cloud, giving them cover so they could head to the Enchanted Gate leading to the Dungeon Heart. In their beeline to the Dungeon Heart, they caught sight of a pully system with no visable signs of a lever.

Henry, recalling the other group passing a winch, contacts Gilgemesh informing him of the pully system that Herveus's group is inspecting. Gligemesh decides to leave the Calvin and Shambles to fill the packs with treasure while he and Ogin return to the winch he noticed. Just before entering the room, Gilgemesh notices the archer slits in the walls surrounding the winch and remembered that all of the minions of Galakatath are women. He then decides to put on a show to distract them from Ogin cranking the large winch. As Ogin heads to the winch, Gilegmesh reaches back to drag his axe over his shoulder in preparation of his epic solo concert. During a lul of his shredding and a softening of his voice, he pushes his guitar back and tears off his shirt just before he lets it rip seducing his female audience. During Gilgemesh's performance, Ogin makes himself useful by turning the winch, activating a trap causing molten rock to pour down upon his head. Although it was annoying, the lava did not hinder Ogin's task, allowing him to open the first layer of the gate to the Dungeon Heart.

Realising it was but the first of three winches, Herveus asks Ril if he intends to continue holding back his power. After pausing for a beat, Ril responds by silently holding his hand out for the robe and mask Hervus kept within his chest to dawn his mantle as the Keeper Merlin.

### - Hongshir's assault:

At an earlier point in time Hongshir, who had just returned from his unnamed quest from the mainland, got word that he the forces of Galakatath were up to something. His sorceress, Virla and a unknown third party were spotted in a cave a ways away from his Dungeon, carrying with them large amounts of gold. Knowing that the Keeper is most likely staging a location to set up another backup Dungeon Heart Hongshir decided to leave the attack on the Dungeon proper to the rest of The Party and focus his attention on cutting of Galakatath's retreat.

Getting there was a simple matter for him. A few uses of the Underworld portal network (that Hongshir has gotten a bit **too** used to using by now) got him onto Zyreema in less than an hour, and what minions were keeping watch in front of the cave were all uneasy because of their Dungeon being under attack, that unease was all that Hongshir needed to slip past them and sneak in.

Listening in to their conversation, Hongshir found out that The Party's suspicions were true and that Galakatath was indeed working for someone else now and that said employer was using a warrior priest of Azzathra as a liaison between himself and his subordinate Keeper. He also found out that the gold they had stored away here was indeed enough to create an additional Dungeon Heart and that, should he leave now, they would definitely create another one and Galakatath would certainly live to fight another day.

But Hongshir, a man who knew all too well the damage Keepers could cause if allowed to roam free, would not stand for that.

Virla, the Sorceress and the Warrior Priest were arguing over the next course of action they should take when they heard some noise down one of the corridors. They paid it little mind and told a nearby minion to go check it out. Then when that one did not return within five minutes they sent a pair to go check what was taking her so long. It was when the third group was sent out that they became certain that there was an intruder within the caves - and that the intruder had somehow managed to take out all of the minions before they could even utter a sound.

A terrifying ability of the Zantsuken school was its fast and efficient approach to killing. When a practitioner attacked then one attack was all it ever took. Hongshir's hands reached out of the shadows and snapped the orc's neck, her lifeless body being gently put onto the ground and placed to the side of the tunnel with the others almost methodically. He knew that it was only a matter of time till the leaders of this little gathering would come after him. They had far too much gold present to be able to move it or to simply retreat and leave it behind. He took up his three section staff and steadied his breath, letting his Ki flow throughout his body till he felt as though he was bursting with power - such was the power of the Zantsuken school "*(Kozai)*" Stance.

Then the knife came flying.

Diving in and out of the flickering shadows of the torchlight cave Virla began to fight the intruder whom she recognized as the strange fighter that was with the people who captured her almost two weeks ago, but unlike then she was not outnumbered and the dimly lit underground was her domain. She was confident that she would win this battle.

But she did not know that Hongshir had fought and prevailed against even greater adversity time and time again, despite her terrain advantage her attacks were repeatedly deflected or parried and soon she found herself completely on the defensive and even forced to retreat.

After that the villains attempted to make use of whatever means at their disposal but to their terror, even the priestly powers of Azzathra's cleric were one-sidedly beaten by the martial arts master, whose blows had sent the now-unconscious warrior priest crashing into the into the solid bedrock.

Hongshir chose to allow the Sorceress to flee in abject terror, prioritizing the threat that had been preforming hit and run attacks from the shadows. While it did take him a few narrow dodges, he soon grasped her attack patern and, in a display of speed that seemed to well surpass human capabilities, pin down her hand, the dagger she poised at his back falling limply to the ground. Then, with a single hand, he wretched the Dark Mistress out of the shadows that kept her safe for so long and, unleashing his built up Ki, struck her pressure point - rendering her unconscious.

That was all the respect for Herveus's wishes he could afford. Hongshir knew from experience that if he'd repeatedly shown weakness behind enemy lines that it would eventually mean his doom. This would normally mean making sure that any enemy he faced would not be in a position to get up again. Since his companion seemed to desire for the girl to turn over a new leaf he would respect him and leave her alive for as long as there is a chance of her changing her ways. But the priest of Azzathra was another story. Hongshir knew that there was no helping that man and leaving even a possibility of him escaping would only cause more misery in the future. It was a hard choice - but one he had to make.

"*I am truly sorry*"

And with a loud crash the floor of the cave, alongside the skull of the priest, broke like a dried pastry beneath his boot.

He tossed Virla over his shoulder and went to secure the rest of the cave for when his allies would arrive.

Hongshir's assault: **Total Victory.**

### - The battle at the lava lake:

Meanwhile In Galakatath's treasury, Gilgamesh, Shambles and Ogin finished filling up the sacks with stolen gold and began legging it to aid their Keeper Merlin in his fight. They evaded the ongoing skirmishes between the defenders and the approaching Raventhorn as best they could until they came across the two Horned Reapers bashing it out in the barracks. But when one Horned Reaper disappeared, dragged away by her master's Keeper Hand, the rest of Galakatath's minions present found themselves caught between a blood thirsty Reaper on the one side and a vampire and a giant blocking the only exit. Their only chance to get out of that situation alive was to break the minion bond and leave Galakatath's service. It was thanks to Gilgamesh's charisma that a few even showed interest in joining the winning side.

At the lower level of the Dungeon, Galakatath in response to Ril's arrived in the form of one infernal fireball. Before Darik, Herveus and Merlin could even recover from the blast, they found themselves faced with the female Reaper, Grunka and a line of archers and a shield wall.

Far away in Groenburg Henry watched the fierce battle trough a crystal ball, he needed to do something - fast! So he did what any sane man would do to break up a fight - he called Red via message spell and told him how to get down there to "join the fun". Then he contacted Darik's lieutenant Simon who was carrying the portal stone for the Hero Gate. "Your boss needs reinforcements, now. Follow my directions!" he transmitted and guided the officer down the stairs to the lower level.

But in the end it was one ordinary soldier who contributed the final decision that should fully turn the tide of battle. Lieutenant Simon arrived, out of breath and battered all over, at the bottom of the stairs and used the portal stone. In a bright shining glow the Hero Portal formed and through it came Raventhorn and Silver Eagle troops, fresh, well rested and eager for a fight, followed by Commander Iris and a slightly tired Henry Mason. The adventurers attacked the orcish shield wall from behind while Ogin applied pressure from the front. It didn't take long for the wall to crumble. Amidst that chaos, Darik stepped on Ogin's shoulder and leaped over the minions to join his men.

Soon enough, the Dungeon itself shook from the intensity of the battle, the ground rumbled and dust flew as both sides pulled out all their trump cards. Arrows, fireballs and lightning bolts, bellowed commands, the ringing of steel on steel and the cries of the wounded filled the air as the main combatants of all three sides entered into an all-out battle.

Imps appeared near Henry and tried to make the Hero Gate impassable, but they had barely started to dig a pit when a handful of soldiers struck them down.

Without the backing of her troops, Grunka stood no chance against Herveus. Severely wounded, her master took her from the fight.

Until now the Reapers had been completely absorbed in their duel with neither side having a distinct advantage. That changed when Keeper Merlin and his officers (with the addition of Gilgamesh) combined their efforts to assist Red and decide the battles victor once and for all. With their combined might demoness stood no chance and was slain before her Keeper could interfere.

Without other enemies to fight, Raventhorn and the Silver Eagles turned their attention towards the remaining threat: demons, a vampires, a death knight, a giant of a man and a wizard with red glowing eyes. The Party took that is their clue to disappear and leave the cleanup to the good guys. They got what they come for.

In a dark corner, hidden behind a pile of rubble, Calvin nearly choked on a chicken bone he had stolen from the kitchen. Without warning the sacks of gold he was lying on, shifted and one after the other disappeared into thin air - nine in total.

### - The inventor of the canon and the prodigy of rock:

Most people would have preferred not to push their luck too far at that point. And while it was not confirmed with certainty that Henry was working for a Keeper there were some suspicious glances being thrown in his direction. Nevertheless, the cheery wizard had asked Ril to let him stay longer after the rest of The Party would be pulled out and his Keeper obliged.

Whether he requested this out of a desire to see Galakatath's demise to the end or just out of his own morbid curiosity to see what was behind the anti-magical gates that protected the inner sanctum of the enemy Dungeon was something that only Henry knew. But regardless of his intentions Henry remained with the Raventhorn forces and proved an indispensable asset to the siege of the final sanctum.

Using the spell he had developed in the Dungeon prior to The Party heading out on their mission to defeat Galakatath as a basis, he worked tirelessly with the smiths and mages of Raventhorn till they created an enormous carved out cylinder with large metal balls placed into is as ammunition. This "canon" required a complex ritual using many casters supplying the mana for it to fire but with the firepower, it provided the combined forces of Good tore down the last of Galakatath's defenses and open the path for the final push and the destruction of the last of the Keeper's Dungeon Hearts.

**Galakatath has been slain!**

And whilst Henry did want to stay even longer, finish the conversation he had with Simon, commend the leadership of Iris... Herveus however advised their Keeper that letting Henry get taken to Wicklow, infamous for being the capital of information gathering and torture for the forces of The Light, would be a bad idea and Henry was (with quite a bit of persistent whining) teleported away and thrown over Herveus's shoulder and carried off to the Dungeon where the rest of The Party and the impatient Gilgamesh awaited.

For Gilgamesh, spending time in prison was not unusual, but he had to admit that the one he was in now was much more comfortable than any he'd had the misfortune of being in, to date. The Skeleton in green armor told him when they arrived that he would be staying under guard simply as a precautionary measure and that he would be "treated well", but Gil was expecting that to mean getting marinated before they feed him to some random beast - not a relatively comfy bed and 3 decent meals a day.

Clearly, the Dungeon Keeper here was skipped a few lessons involving ironic death traps.

But it got stranger. After three days of relative comfort, and a free massage courtesy of a tentacle monster, Gilgamesh was taken to the Keeper and what appeared to be his aides where he was offered a position in their Dungeon.

Now, under normal circumstances, Gilgamesh would never take such an offer. He preferred the freedom that could only be found when was **not** holed up under ground most of the time. But this time he had reason to consider the contract. Minions working for Merlin apparently had benefits that no other Keeper in is rightly Evil mind would give. Also, if the battle from a few days ago was any indication hanging out with this group was going to be a constant inspiration for some wicked metal riffs. Not only that but he was told that the Dungeon they were in was on **ALBION**(one of the only places in the world where he has not been).

Well, he hadn't done it before. Might as well give it a shot once (regrets can only be had after the fact after all).

**Gilgamesh has joined The Party!**

## Tying up loose ends and the quest for Fear

### - Return to Albion and some tense meetings:

So even after dealing with mountains of paperwork and getting updated on what happened in their absence The Party still had to deal with 2 important urgent matters.

Their pending deadline imposed by the Silver Dragons and the meeting with the Shining Concord envoys involving the salvaged wreckage of their fleet.

Luckily for The Party, the deadline had now become a non-issue. With their recent endeavors, they not only got what money they needed for a new Dungeon Heart but also broke their desired goal more than two times over. They finally had the resources to create their new Dungeon Heart Mk.2.

So The Party decided to get the job of making a deal with the Shining Concord, something that some people thought was going to be a simple affair, handled first. But of course - it can never be easy.

After they flew trough the cold winter sky in their carriage and upon their arrival in Baron Leopold's castle they faced rule after rule being cited to them about how agents of the Shining Concord can never make deals with Dungeon Keepers followed by a demand - a demand! - to hand over what they found on the salvaged ships.

But, thanks to Henry paying closer attention then Merlin (who looked like he was about half ready to flip the table) and the bellowing laughter of the Baron, The Party was spared an outburst. Henry subtly told Merlin that the envoy wanted to work with The Party but **couldn't** so it was best to come up with a more discreet method of coming to an agreement with them. A fact confirmed later by Argenta who had, along with the Baron during the meeting, surprised Merlin with their now present friendliness.

The deal might not have worked out but the fact that someone had actually recognized The Party as being "not that bad" was something that made the whole event seem like a victory in Ril's book.

### -Back to the Underworld...Again:

Henry and Herveus attempted to speak to Virla to varying degrees of success, their personal issues with the Mistress of Pain keeping them from turning the conversation into a full blown interrogation. But their efforts did bare fruit. Virla confessed that Galakatath had indeed made a plea for aid to the Cult of Azzathra and was receiving their support (in the form of troops, funds and the female Horned Reaper). The gold that was secured by Hongshir was, in fact, a loan from the Cult. But not only that, some more personal questions gave The Party some additional information.

Herveus talked to her about the whereabouts of her other sisters and discovered that they are either searching for employment at the moment or getting used to "some new positions" like Virla had with Galakatath.

While Henry, who could not help himself but to go and visit her to see if she had "taken his advise to heart" (honest in intention, though anybody hearing him talk could easily confuse it for gloating), had goaded her into spilling the name of Galakatath's Sorceress that was responsible for his mind-controlled harem, a woman by the name of **Monterain**.

When The Party gathered together to discuss what they discovered and the recent happenings on in the Dungeon the topic of the Dark Gods was opened up again. While the church of the Mighty Tyrant was not aware of it yet, The Party had given had given them another reason to dislike them beside them already denying their Keeper Albion once before and refusing to answer any of their many letters. And it was **a lot** of letters, and not only from the one church. A myriad of representatives of the Dark Gods had sent them letters asking them to swear fielty to their chosen deity, and due to The Party's policy of not answering those letters some of them were beginning to change in tone from formal requests to overt threats. It was clear that if things went on it was only a matter of time till they received a black envelope summoning them to one of the Dark Temples or till they found themselves with no mana being supplied to their Dungeon Heart. So The Party began to go over all of the information Cess had acquired about the major churches and see if there was a religion that they could even consider allying themselves with.

.............The general consensus was that each God seemed like a pretty sucky option (each for their own specific and uniquely unpleasant reasons). Fortunately Gilgamesh had memory of a historian in the underworld doing research on Old Dark Gods, and thought perhaps they can find an alternative to the five dark gods.

Gil, Hongshir, Henry and Gruk made their way down to the Underworld, they went to the last settlement where Gil remembered seeing her and thanks to Henry's OCD (which was, this time, targeted on the lost knowledge about the many "Old Dark Gods"), they found out she was working for a low level warlock named Bob.

They managed to find the warlocks hut, and after some sass from a small child, Gil was once again reunited with his former hobbit lover **Lucile Oglewatch**. Gil was then slapped around silly by his former lover, but The Party was invited inside nonetheless.

They asked the historian about her research, however she made it very clear that she no longer pursued that line of work out of fear of the Dark Gods followers and a traumatic experience she had at the hands of the blind monks of the Zanshuken school years ago.

Gil however didn't believe that she had completely given up, and brought the adventurer he once knew out again, by bringing up that the Keeper he was working for was on the long lost island Albion.

Lucile quit her job on the spot and and left with The Party, but first they had to grab her old notes she hid in a cave somewhere in the Underworld wilderness, trying not to attract the attention of the many native Pumblooms.

They make it back to the keep draw up a contract for Lucile and in exchange for a nice cottage and gold she told them what she knew. Also she told them about an ancient Fear God sleeping away in some temple.

"*Who wants to go poke the physical incarnation of fear with a stick?*"

* The party goes to the Zanshuken school to gain knowledge about the goddess of fear.
* They convince the Zanshuken master to give them the knowledge, but the Zanshuken master requires that they first manage to trick a Dark God.
* Back at the dungeon, ideas are exchanged as to how to go about this task are exchanged, with little results.
* Hongshir gives Ril a lesson in how to be a good person.
* Ril attempts to plan a surprise party for Henry's upcoming birthday.
* The current notetaker is drawn and quartered for writing up such a lameass summary.

### - Espionage:

A meeting was held in order to come up with ideas for how to deal with the Zanshuken masters request and eventually come up with the idea to mess with the operations of The Unraveller by misleading them. In order to get information for the plan. He traveled to the underworld to meet an old contact, Brannigan at the tickled pig.

After tracking Brannigan down, getting the VIP bouncer and winning a bet he had the information he needed and returned to the dungeon informing his companions of what he had learned. And so the plan was set.

Meanwhile, Hongshir had been escorting the Albion envoy to Byzantinople and decides to meet Kalandra while he is there who (on top of a very large tower) informed him she's found a few promising architects for the Avalon project. Hongshir before inquiring specific details makes sure that these architects aren't psychotic homicidal maniacs, She names one man while still insane showed promise after some chit chat and with their discussion over Hongshir leaps of the tower and falls into the sunset.

A messenger was being sent to give details to followers of The Unraveller on when and where to strike. Gil intercepted the messenger in guise of the "handsome human bandit king Ilgamesh" and distracted the messenger while the Party muscle snuck up behind and whacked him with forget-me-stick, taking the message and giving it to Ril and Henry who, after making sure there weren't any traps, read the message and replaced with a convincing fake that would throw a real wrench into the works of The Unraveller's. And so all that was left was to wait and watch...

After learning that their plans for creating chaos were successful the party returned to the Zanshuken school, only for the master there to inform them that they had not accomplished the task as he had intended but that he would concede and provide them with what they needed leading them into a surprisingly well-lit vault. This likely would have gone well for any other group but Henry was consumed by a compulsion for knowledge and stole from the vault, and while he managed to get away with it without getting caught it would only be a matter of time before the Zanshukens found out.

### - Meeting Fear:

The Party begins analyzing the journal the Zanshukens provided, and Herveus deciphers the location where the Goddess of Fear had a shrine. The Party began preparation to travel to the haunted, dark forest of Iidia. Entering it, they feel the presence of ghosts and all manner of dark apparitions. After feeling endangered The Party escapes further into the forest, with Henry falling behind forcing Hongshir to go back and save him. After going up against the forest's trickery and finding Henry, Hongshir make it back to the rest of The Party. They enter the empty dungeon they found while escaping finding burned hoof prints at the cave entrance, of which was identified as Nightmare hoof prints. The Party on their way to the inner depths of the ruined Dungeon, begin hearing hoof noises charging at them from another corridor. Startled at this, Ril uses his Granny Hill summon to collapse the corridor where it was coming from.

Deeper down they pass a corridor filled to the brim with (rather low level) holy protective signs and seals. Henry temporarily lifts the final seal at the opposite door slightly and enter the pitch black and horrifying temple of the fear goddess. They find the black pond at the center where sacrifices would dropped in trying to avoid said ponds Henry grabs the Stick of Yew and chucks it in to see what it does and wakes the sleeping goddess. After making her Introduction, Ril begins to offer a deal to the the Goddess about the terms in which he would like to have when having the goddess as their deity, but she was not pleased with his disrespectful tone. Henry had to placate her by rationally acting with charm and submission, calming the goddess down enough so they could ask what they'll need to have her representation. The Goddess signals through visions that she is willing to grant them protection from other Dark Gods if they fulfill three requirements: They have to build her a proper new temple, find a new priestess, and they have to actively worship her. Through a flashed image of the priestess atop a Nightmare, they made an educated guess that they would need to obtain a Nightmare and have it lead them to the priestess that they will need.

So they had 2 missions: Find and obtain a Nightmare and lead it to the new priestess and find an architect to begin construction of the temple in which they will need to worship her.

After an unsuccessful chase after the Nightmare in hopes to use it to find a suitable candidate for the priestess The Party was forced to return to the Dungeon due to their lack of supplies. After crashing their weary bodies and minds into the first thing that was even remotely comfy the individual members of The Party all laid down for a well deserved rest. The entire trip to the temple and back was downright draining for everyone involved and they were not looking forward to having to repeat it.

Still - results were results. Unpleasant as the trip might have been they were now one step away from finally having some kind of safety against the Dark Gods (even if that safety came at a very steep price).

### - Intermezzo I: Interrogation

Henry visited Virla in the prison every day for reasons only he understands as she consequently blocked off every attempt of conversation. On one such day he witnessed Tserk trying to "have fun" with the prisoner. Unfortunately for the beast, Virla was the superior wrestler and was nearly finished tying his tentacles to the bars. When Henry tried to help he got too close so Virla could grab him and take him hostage. Henry tricked her into putting on the cursed anklet so that Jacker could take control over her body. Henry got free and fetched Herveus to help him lock her up properly gain and retrieve the anklet. After that it took a stern reprimand from Herveus before Tserk would let go of the now defenseless Virla whom he was "giving a massage".

### - Intermezzo II: Meeting old firends

Herveus was sent to the Underworld to meet up with Cess and pick up the latest reports. Apparently Raventhorn was testing a new kind of weapon. Code word: Brass Destruction.

After that he takes a detour to visit an old hideout remembers from the time he was still alive and working with Wicklow. At a remote underground village mostly populated by dark elves he enters a sparsely frequented pub and orders a drink dropping a code phrase. Together with the ordered drink he gets a key. After he had finished his drink he left, went around the building and unlocked the backdoor with the key. Inside he was greeted by a lantern shining into his eyes and three bodyguards with their weapons at his ~~throat~~  neck, while another person was waiting in the shadows.

Herveus introduced himself and was relieved of his weapons. Then his old friend Aymar steeped out of the shadows and greeted him warmly (cracking a joke about his face looking better now). They caught up on old times, shared stories and then slowly turned to more serious topics. Herveus shared the intel he had picked up since his resurrection about Moslyeas and Galakatath, closing some holes in Aymar's files, while he strictly denied to share anything sensitive concerning his current employer.

Aymar on his end made Herveus aware of several important developments. After Moslyeas death there had been a free for all battle amongst her minions to get to her now owner-less dungeon hearts first. Of those who managed to claim one of her four hearts, only one is still alive: A former lieutenant called Siegfried, whom Herveus remembered as a self-important and very confident warrior who had picked up some magic tricks to use on the battle field.

Of Moslyeas's daughter all had managed to get a bounty placed on their heads that in some cases nearly rivalled that of low-ranking Dungeon Keepers. Unfortunately Aymar did not have any information about the daughter's whereabouts.

Next Aymar showed Herveus a wanted poster that promised a considerable bounty to anyone who brought a specific lost necromantic construct back to its rightful owner. It was signed by Falya, Moslyeas's third daughter and the necromancer who had raised Herveus the Death Knight.

Before Herveus left, he asked Aymar to hand a letter from Henry over to Iris.

### - Intermezzo III: A matter of brains

Back on Albion - Henry arranged a meeting with an historian. Together with Herveus he went to see her, bringing three of the brains in a jar with him. After the initial shock the historian was able to confirm the story of the noble woman named Elisabeth III. of Lester who went missing centuries ago on a quest to oppose an evil wizard in the east of the northern woods. After that she sated her own professional curiosity by questioning the time witnesses about many topics concerning their time. Henry noticed that sometimes the brains were a bit slow to answer the questions.

The next day Henry and Herveus together with all the brains went to mansion of Henry's dreaded uncle Sebastian. After fighting off the delighted servants they went to the office where the master of the house was waiting for them sitting in his throne-like chair. Instead of a greeting he slapped Henry in the face, twice, for making him worry and bringing shame to the family. He also questioned his nephew about Cess and how she could escape the bindings he had placed on her.

Henry had to beg for Sebastian's help with the riddle of the brains and promise to repay him with a magic book from outside of Albion. Only then was his uncle willing to hear him out and provide assistance. Henry had the brains introduce themselves to Sebastian one after another. Only Herveus noticed that he had either confused to jars or now bodyguard and one of the farmers had taking each others place – or maybe playing each others roles?

Directly after hearing the full story Sebastian bragged that he had figured it out and he obviously enjoyed leading his nephew to the answer, torturing, insulting and demeaning him with every sentence.

As it turns out, Jacker's had never been bound to the anklet, nor had it been in any one of the brains. Instead the mind of the wizard has fused with every one of his victims one after the other, taking over all their experiences and memories. The anklet was a relay, a trap to add more victims to the collective, but it doesn't function when taken out of their reach. The collective's mental capacity also drops when its hosts are separated from each other.

Why Jacker had taken the brains out of their bodies is not yet answered, as is the question who performed the surgery on the last brain.

On their way out, Henry noticed a disguised magic circle in the carpet, strategically placed holy symbols around the office and covered up seals decorating the door frame. Magic precautions. Another reason Henry would complain about his uncle all the way back to the dungeon.

### - Dr. Hans the Necromancer:

**A month was left.** Careful planing, thorough preparation and more effort then humanly possible all went into getting their new island base - Avalon - operational.

So why did it feel like even though they had the resources they needed Ril felt like dragon teeth were tightening around his neck?!

Trough their combined effort, they now had a trade corporation providing them with the funds that normal Keepers would gain from pillaging and in addition, thanks to the spoils gotten from Galakatath, they had more then enough for to pay for what they needed. So of course, the universe must have thought, it should *only be natural* that they hit a wall just when they were so close to their goal and their relative safety.

Without the priestess they could not get the safety they so needed from the fickleness of the Dark Gods.

Without an architect they could not proceed with the final stage of construction of Avalon.

Without either their heads might as well be on a chopping block as the Silver Dragon clan would come baring down at their, rendered powerless when the Dark Gods cut their magic supply, Dungeon.

Thankfully some good news arrived when Herveus informed him that their several months long search for the Head of the Medical might have come to a close. Soon after, Herveus and Henry (followed by Calvin and Gruk) headed to the Underworld to evaluate this "Dr. Hans" that Cess had discovered and see if he was the right man for the job.

Their meeting went very well. Not only did doctor Hans live up to his reputation (swiftly and effectively offering treatment to the arm Herveus broke during the battle against Grunka) but his policies and stances seemed to be well in line with what The Party was looking for. Some negotiations were all it took to get Hans interested enough to agree to go meet with Keeper Merlin to discuss the finer detail of the contract.

Though the trip back was a bit more......*eventful* then the group bargained for. After leaving the clinic in the hands of his assistant The Party (with the addition of Hans) was ambushed just in front of the Portal outside the city. The attackers apparently aiming to claim a bounty put on Herveus's head by his creator Fayla who wanted "her creation returned to her".

Unfortunately the band of attackers did not know what they were in for. It took less then twenty minutes an angry Herveus to turn the Skeletons they rasied into broken shards and fine dust, Hans to destroy the most valuable magical tool their Necromancers had and Gruk to break the arms and legs of all of their crossbowmen. A follow up interrogation made by Henry reveled that Fayla has set up operations in a former bandit headquarters that she took over in a certain layer of the Underworld.

Taking with them the four Necromancers as prisoners and unknowingly leaving the Dark Elf mercenaries to lay broken and missing some of their "tastier bits" (a little something that Grukk, now with a full stomach, neglected to mention to his commanding officer) The Party returned to Albion and Hans finally met up with Merlin.

Hans was pleasantly surprised that this Keeper seemed much more reasonable then the ones whose envoys he had to deal with in the past. Negotiations wrapped up smoothly and soon Hans found himself organizing his new workplace and meeting pudgy Dark Elves, Dragons and Demons in the Dungeon as the new Head of the Medical Department.

**Hans Von Streisenberg** **has joined The Party!**

### - Welcome to the Dungeon:

At the typical morning meeting Merlin decide to share the great secret of the Dungeon, that they are NOT all evil, with their newest recruit. Rather, they are an assembly people ranging anywhere from good to neutral with Merlin (real name Ril Veius) have been pushed into being a Keeper by outside forces and circumstances.

Hans, who lived in both a Good country and the Underworld and was disheartened by the dogmas of the people there, could barely believe that a place like this, so close to his ideal of a place were Gods do not influence the choices of mortals. He did not allow this to show on his face of course - that would simply be unprofessional.

But Hans did not have time to ponder as Cecilia informed Merlin that, besides the previously found candidate (an architect turned unsound of mind after being forced to construct a Dark Temple), there were no new leads. But once Has regained his thoughts, he explained that it might be possible to find an architect that fits their criteria in Vonderwald, a volatile country only recently back under Light control.

Having found a new avenue for the architect problem, The Party moved on to the next issue on the agenda - the search for a priestess. After some deliberation (with Hans suggesting some interesting ideas of handling Ril's soul issue) it was decided that catching the Nightmare was going to be needed in order to start their search proper.

So it was decided Hans (in disguise), Henry, Cecilia, and Hongshir would venture in to Vonderwald in search of an architect, while Merlin, Herveus, Count Shambles and Hobs would try to catch the Nightmare.

Once the official part of the meeting was concluded Hans approached Merlin asking for a “donation” of his blood for research purposes. After some convincing from Lilith and Henry Mason, involving choke holds and magical restriction, the donation was given and Hans could start some basic experiments on the thaumaturgical soul magnetism of living tissue.

Now Herveus and Henry approached Merlin and revealed the new information about Jaker. The ghost was in fact an amalgamation of 5 personalities living in the brain jars, the anklet was just a focus to allow him to possess people and didn’t really house his spirit. Merlin offered Jacker his position as a true-and-true minion which he accepted after some consideration.

**Jacker** **has joined The Party!**

After the meeting Hans had his first surgery in the Dungeon!

Nurgle, the Bile Demon Alchemist, after complaining about a mass forming in his second stomach, was the first to be put under the knife in the new operating theater. After some exploratory surgery to get familiar with the Demons anatomy Hans went to work. After finding and removing a half-formed crystalline substance in the 2nd stomach and a fully solidified one in the 3rd stomach Hans discovered a suspicious growth in the 4th stomach, after further examination Hans determined it was cancerous and removed it too.

After waking up Nurgle from the necromantic anesthesia the horrified Bile Demon said that the growth was a cancerous tumor true - but the secretion from it was what allowed the Demon his unusual stomach alchemic control. Hans quickly redeemed his unintentional blunder by replanting the tumor and even improving the control Nurgle had of it, grafting extra vessels to the growth and implanting muscle tissues allowing the Bile Demon to now control the blood flow to the cancer, giving him new possibilities of controlling his ability.

The confused and slightly unsettled Demon left the Operating Theater now even better than before (swearing to never again allow himself to get sick again!).

### - Off to the Hunt~!:

Just as they had agreed at the meeting, The Party split into two groups. Herveus, Merlin, Count Shambles, along with Hobs and several of their Worgs, used their carriage and went back to the desolated Dungeon that housed theDark Temple of the Goddess of Fear. After some searching of the ruined hallways group concluded that the Nightmare had left the temple some time ago and, using the Worgs, the group started tracking it trough the forest. Sadly for our Merlin however, his own Dungeon Keeper power seemed to have resonated strangely with his surroundings, causing him to attract countless low level evil spirits and take a very nasty tumble. But what made the experience truly bad was the fact that, just as he was standing up, he came face to face with a deformed tree which made him flash back him of the terrifying experience fighting Argenta on Silver Island, the malovelont energies of the forest amplifying the fear he felt back then several times and disturbing him greatly.

But after regaining some of his composure and joining his companions they soon discovered that the Nightmare had left the forest. Forcing the group to pursue the beast beyond the haunted wood and accross the mountain ranges of west Zyreema.

Eventualy though, after several days tracking where their Keeper barely managed to get any rest due to his experience in the wood, the group managed to track down the Nightmare to a strange dwarf settlement of unknown origin.

The valley om front of the entrance to the dwarf fortress had been reduced to a smoldering wasteland, with the occasional charred remains of tree trunks sticking out of a thick layer of ash and strange rock formations. The main gate, unlocked and slightly ajar, was was "guarded" only by a pair of very lifelike stone statues that, from a distance, were indistinguishable from normal guards. The trend of unsettling discoveries only continued as the group went inside to investigate. The dwarf all seemed either sick and lethargic or outright mad. Many had been maimed and could no longer work, others seemed too out of it to take care of themselves while the few remaining in anything resembling working conditions were too few to provide any real assistance to their brethren.

According to one such, slightly more lucid, individual the community had been struck by an unlikely sequence of bad luck and accidents that led to the slow decay and eventually some violent mental break downs. Many of these tragic events were engraved into the very halls by the very skilled but also very mad stonemason named **Sankis** who seemed to take pleasure in depicting each tragedy in gruesome detail.

Thanks to the trusty nose of Fluffy (Hobbs's dear Worg partner) and some magical aid The Party was lead to the deepest point of the fortress, the now-unmanned lava forges above a river of molten rock. To their surprise the Nightmare they had been tracking emerged from the lava and approached them peacefully. It accepted the offerings of meat Keeper Merlin spread out before it and responded to their plea for assistance regarding the priestess by taking them back to the upper floors.

What The Party thought was a statue garden with some children playing in it turned out to be much more of a morbid sight then what they could have expected. The statues, standing and gazing coldly at all those who passed them by were actually gravestones and the group of Dwarf children playing with bones with a kind of childish innocence one could not help but feel haunted by. They screamed and tried to flee when the Nightmare approached - all but one that is. After greeting the steed like an enthusiastic girl would greet its loyal pony the girl, Amala Coalback, explained she was an orphan who had seen her parents die. She wasn't afraid of any of the strangers, nor the person she identified as a Dungeon Keeper, or the monsters in his retinue. She was also very nonchalant about the prospect of a violent death in her near future as the fortresses digressed into further turmoil. Hearing this and feeling conflicted Keeper Merlin proposed to recruit her as the new priestess of the Goddess of Fear and take her away (promising her along the way that he would take care of her proper) - she didn't hesitate to agree and took the Keepers hand.

But, as the final unpleasant surprise Koganusân could offer them before they could make their way their way out, The Party met the minion of another Dungeon Keeper. The tentacle monster, that the miffed Merlin dubbed "**Not'n'portant**", had sabotaged this colony for years, created accidents, assassinated important figures in the worst possible moment and even mixed drugs into the ale supplies. It delivered greetings from Keeper Midori, an expert in politics and non-military warfare. Not'n'portant reveled that he overheard the conversation Merlin had with the girl and that pointed out that Keeper Merlin would be very likely be interested in doing business its master, telling the Keeper he should come into contact with a **Princess Julia** if he should ever become interested.

Merlin, realizing that Not'n'portant overheard him talking about how he feels about Dungeon Keepers, his intentions of informing Nimbadnur and getting aid sent to Koganusân and that he was searching for a priestess for the Goddess (thankfully not mentioning exactly which Dark Goddess during the conversation), let out some of his pent up frustration over the past few days and intimidated Not'n'portant into being very careful what information he is going to share to its master. He knew that it was only a stopgap measure but he hoped that by putting the fear of ever-living Darkness into it he would manage to buy at least a few days for them to expedite their plans and get to the Dark Temple to show the newfound priestess candidate to Fear.

After that unpleasant encounter, The Party bid farewell to Koganusân (though not son enough for their tastes) started the long journey back.

### - In search of builders:

At the same time, far off to the north, the other part of The Party consisting of Henry, Cess, Hans, Hongshir and Ogin exited the Underworld portal emerged at the edge of the warzone surrounding Vonderwald and headed towards the Capital.

Vonderwald had not changed much in the time he was gone, Hans thought. Following an old road past a destroyed waypost and to a recently abandoned village they became aware that they were uncomfortably close to a location were the Keeper Arachne was active. Deciding that moving fast was preferable to getting caught up in trouble during a covert mission, Hans created necromantic mounts for the group using some of the skeletons and materials he found around the settlement. All the while having his first real discussion with the Wandering Warrior of the group, the two sharing their thoughts on what they should do about the local farm animals stuck in their pens. On one hand, Hongshir said, it might be a mercy to put them down before the Keeper comes crawling and turns the penned animals to spider food. On the other hand, Hans was of the opinion of that they should set the animals free into the forest to fend for themselves and, while they were not likely to survive being let loose into the Vonderwald wilderness, betting on their own strengths was a far greater mercy then their other available options. A point which Hongshir smilingly succeeded to Hans, forming a better opinion of his new companion before they began their long ride.

A long ride that was easier on some then others. While Hongshir was uncomfortable with the idea of riding creations born of dark magics, he was nowhere near as bad off as poor Cecilia whose behind had just about given out atop the skeletal amalgamation. She was probably the most glad of the group when she heard that they had to dismount, as they seemed to have caught up with the villagers fleeing in the direction of the nearest fortification.

But, after some negotiation on the part of Hans (the only one capable of speaking the language as the older villagers of Vonderwald have not yet taken up learning the Common Language), they managed to persuade the nervous villagers that they meant no harm and join them on their march towards the next waypoint.

They did not have to go far, before night could fall they reached a fortress under the command of a Vonderwaldian noble that was scrambling to repair a breach in their wall, quickly getting ready to defend the next attack as they accepted villagers that kept pouring in from the surrounding areas,

But it was then that the group hit their first real trouble during their mission. After convincing the engineer in charge of construction, a seemingly very competent woman called ***Magistra Dietlinde***, to meet them later in the evening to discuss a potential business opportunity the group split as some went to copy a map for their travel and others went about the fortress, looking it over and getting informed on the current situation. It was then that Hans's true identity as the wanted surgeon who had fled into the Underworld was discovered and he was taken to the cells where he met the Warlock Nero, who was held in a cell specially designed for practitioners of magic.

Hongshir later met with Magistra Dietlinde again and, honest and direct as always, told her that he was working for a Keeper who was interested in her services. At first she thought it was a joke, but when he insisted, she panicked and called for the guards. From the perspective of the soldiers it looked like Hongshir then went straight for the commander in his office but failed to assassinate him, then rushed through a handful of guardsmen to reach the prison downstairs. There he found Hans who was already stepping through the bent and rusted bars of his cell. Together they freed Nero who then asked them to fetch a small talisman for him from a storage room upstairs. Instead they freed him from his anti-magic shackles so he could do it himself by animating a dead rat. After the rat zombie had delivered the piece of jewelry he did some kind of spell, explaining that it would be the diversion they needed to escape. Immediately the excited shouts upstairs turned into screams of panic and pain. With regal steps he flounced up the stairs and through the courtyard where people, soldiers and villagers alike, were either writhing on the floor in pain to trying to fend of small swarms of spiders climbing up the cloth of their legs. With little resistance they reached the gate, opened it and went outside.

Hans informed Nero that he could stop his spell of imagined pain now just for the warlock to answer: "What illusion? The pain of the spider venom is real." Just then an army of giant spiders emerged from the shadows of the woods and stormed the steep walls of the fortress without much difficulty. Hans barely had time to place one good hit on Arachne's minion before the Keeper teleported Nero away.

Henry had been on the walls inspecting the fortress's defenses against keeper attacks at the moments of the first shouts of alarm and he took this as his clue to leave by jumping over the walls. His companions could fend for themselves.

## Without us knowing?...

Another day began as Herveus and Ril decided to wake Henry up, opening the door to his room only to see Dietlinde sleeping beside him, Herveus isn't too shocked, Ril on the other hand is rather stunned believing that Henry had seduced the (another) woman. She soon awoke and after taking in her surroundings rather loudly expressed her alarm at waking up next to Henry. Henry, however did not seem to see the issue going so far as to point out that it was his room, she was still awake when he went to sleep and expressed mild surprise that she hadn't left to which she tried and failed to come up with good argument.

Moving past the situation and resolving to simply forget it as it was unlikely to occur again, Henry was instructed to go help Garl, while Ril got prepared and Herveus directed Dietlinde to Ril's office, along the way she frequently stopped to soak in the dungeon's design.

After Henry, Herveus and Ril all arrive the interview is underway after getting over the shock, and quite a bit of suspicion and insistent prodding, decides to sign the minion contract and expresses severe disappointment upon discovering the great Keeper Merlin was in fact the young man from early who'd hid behind the Herveus early as well as the almost childish notion that she had to wear a new hire badge.

After attending breakfast wherein Dietlinde was introduced to the dungeons spiders and was filled on what to expect from who by Henry, Henry decided it was time to get Sebastion his Zyreemian magic book, and ended up taking Lucy and Micheal with him.

They end up being dropped near Groenburg,and before long they reach the city gate where it was immdiatly appraent tht there wee still a number of Raventhns within the city. After asking for directions from the guards the three reach what was clearly a shop somebody was running out of their house. It didn't take long for Henry to get what he'd came for and as such told his companions that they could pick one thing and he would help pay for it. Michael took this oppurtunity to ask where they kept the magical weapons, the owner locked the door and took them down to the basement, there were quite a number of weapons for the young boy to gawk at whilst Henry talks to the store owner informing him of Michaels experiance level and learning a little of the owners history.

Michael soon set his sights on a wonderfully crafted sword of calling before he even considered pullig out his purse Henry had Michael repeat to him what Hongshire about how and when you use a weapon and informed him that due to it's size he would be unlikely to use it properly right away. Then after some haggling they had bought the sword as well as a necklace and a few books for Lucy. And without much more worth note the made their way to the pick up spot.

Later that day Keeper Merlin began a short meeting with Keeper Midori in which Henry let slip they have a contract with the spirit of the mist and Midori informed the group that there was *a* keeper on Albion besides them she offered more information in exchange for Merlins golem to which Merlin very strongly refused bringing a swift but civil end to the meeting before grabbing so of his department heads and making a trip to Silver Ilsand to ask the dragons if they'd noticed anything "out of the ordinary" to which they responded no and so Ril hurried along to ask the spirit of the mist if it had seen anything leaving Aurora to ask Herveus and Henry what was going on and inform that they *had* found some giant dead squids now that she had thought aboout it as the mist spirit mentioned an area with some odd air which hadn't deemed with mentioning before, upon returning the group agreed they should investigate further as Aurora stepped into the carriage so that she could act as a supervisor.

So the group returned to the dungeon and immediatly called on officer meeting in which they discussed this new development everyone was warned to keep their guard up and the investigation was soon to begin so the meeting ended most officers left by the time both Ril and Garl expressed surprise that this supposed keeper had hid their presence for so long, however Melissa and Aurora both remained staring eachother down Henry quickly attempted to smooth the situation over by attempting and succeding to get Aurora out the room. Ril prooceded to ask Melissa what that was about to whcih she replied that miss "Jane Smith" had the feel of a dragon about her and warns Ril to keep a close eye on her. Ril decides to use this as an oppurtunity to ask melissa what it would take for a dragon to appear human and is informed that while rather possible would take a fair amount of power to maintain for extended periods but that the greatest cost would be the dragons pride.

### - An "Unexpected" Trap:

Hongshir started the day out with a heart to heart with Michael installing some sense of the value of good for the sake of good in his young protégés heart.

Afterwards he was approached by Hans on the training grounds. The Necromancer ask the Hero to train him in the basic of pressure point fighting, to which he obliged. Hans left the training session with some books, bruises, and ideas.

Henry visits Harveus and pushes him in to dealing with the problem of the bounty still hanging above his head. After that Harveus visited the still trapped Necromancer in the Dungeons cell, and after encouraging them for a bit he learns the location of the village where they should have brought Herveus, would they have succeed in capturing him.

Herveus, Henry, Hans, Hongshir, with Calvin as backup prepared a small expedition. They traveled to the village via carriage drawn by Toothpick. They also took with them the sister of Falya, Virla, bound in booby trapped shackles. Ones they reached the village Herveus, Henry and Hongshir took positon in the city square waiting for a reaction from the Necromancer wanting to capture the Death Knight. Meanwhile Hans spend the day visiting sick villagers healing them, and collecting intelligence about the village via the good old fashioned method of people chatting with their Doctor.

Through this Hans learned that no Necromancer has visited the village but that an orc headhunter called Ulgh was located somewhere in the village. When he rejoined his colleagues at the plaza Herveus noticed a shadowy figure observing the group, called out the shadowy figure revealed themselves, and after a short banter summoned the rest of the bounty hunter in the village, their leader Ulgh.
Herveus and Henry struck a deal with the Bounty hunter. Them leading the group to the place Falya wanting them to be brought, the Bounty hunter keeping the bounty. After a short squabble involving Hans, Ulgh and Herveus the group moved on.

The Bounty hunters brought our Adventurers to a tent surrounded by what appeared to be dead tree branches, which on closer inspection turned out to be bones. After receiving their reward in the tent the bounty hunters left. Herveus being determined to cut through the unnecessary charades and cat and mouse games stepped in to the tent fully aware that it is a trap. It was. Inside he found a powerful magical circle set up to bind and paralyses the Death Knight.

Meanwhile on the outside Henry, Hongshir, and Hans tried their best to prepare for the possibility of combat, since as it turns out that besides dispatching on of her lieutenants, a specter, Falya also dispatched 200 Skeleton Warriors to deal with the capture of Harveus. Hans managed to wrestle the control of a few of them from Falya, and Henry signaled Calvin to take a sniper shot at the Specter.
While this was going on Herveus had a talk (via scrying crystal ball) with Falya, in which he revealed the booby-traps around Virla’s hands and neck forcing the Necromancer to agree to an immediate sees fire. By invoking her mother’s name, and promising to “one day stand with her in battle” Herveus persuade Falya to dispense the bounty on the Death Knights head, and to preliminary agree to a loose alliance with Merlin and his Dungeon.

With things, at least for now, settled the group left the once trap, but not before Henry managed to wrestle a laughter from the Specter Lieutenant, and a high fives from one of the Skeleton Warriors.

### - A Silent Invasion:

While his most trusted minions are still busy in the Underworld, Ril visits his own contacts to get to the bottom of the rumors that there is another Keeper active on Albion. He visits Cait Sith, the Spirit King of Cats, in his domain and offers sweet treats, asking him if he or his cats have witnessed anything that might be related. Unfortunately the spirit didn't know much himself and the only thing he noticed was some cats going missing in the three cities of Iron Briar, Windholm and Greenbreeze. Only when Ril about to leave did he remember that one kitten actually had noticed a person in Iron Briar that didn't smell human.

As soon as Hans, Henry, Herveus and Hongshir were back from their excursion and had made their report, they left for the city – except for Hans who had to treat his broken nose. Instead they took Jared with them, after all he was the one most proficient with this kind of work short of Cess herself. They agreed that Henry and Herveus would act as bait while Jared would watch out for suspicious people. So Henry threw several rounds of beer at a pub in the middle district and learned about a rich merchant funding projects to search for ancient ruins and excavate possible Underworld Portals. Satisfied with that the two of them turned in for the night, but since neither of them sleep that much, they soon started chatting, then contacted Ril and invited him over to join them. For some unexplainable reason they soon started playing Truth or Dare – and because Ril otherwise wouldn't be the *Magnificently Unlucky Summoner* without the bottle turning in his direction every single time.

In the meantime Jared spread the word in the pubs of the harbor district of a generous nobleman asking weird questions and noticed one guy looking shocked by the news. Soon that man got up and left into the night. Jared shadowed him through the dark alleys, but soon was interrupted by Phil, an aquaintance of his and informant of his network. Phil was pretty nervous and relieved to finally see Jared. He said that bad things were happening and his collegue and friend Stan has gone missing nearly a weak ago. He asked why Jared hadn't answered any of his messages. Jared put him off and told him to meet later to discuss things in detail, but be was kind of busy at the moment. He returned to the street before he could loose sight of his prey and him to a storehouse above the harbour district where he lost the trail next to a pile of crates. He reported back to Keeper Merlin who then sent in Hongshir to take over.

Hongshir ran into a city guard paroling around the storehouses who told him to get lost. Explaining that he was acting in a matter of national security the guard was left behind slightly dumbfounded. In the storehouse Hongshir soon discovered a slightly rotten trapdoor hidden between some crates and barrels. Nearly without a sound he broke through the mouldy planks and pulled back the latch from inside and descended down a wooden ladder into the dark. A roughly hewn tunnel led to an old sewer system with brick walls and not far from that point Honghsir discovered another opening leading to a man-made cave with dark tapestry hiding the rough walls. This place had all the markings of a primitive ritual site, including a raised area for the priest to speak from and unknown symbols sewn into the tapestry and smeared onto the walls in blood. A sturdy and magically secured chest stood near the entrance, but Hoghshir didn't dare open it while an alcove in the far wall contained a ritual dagger, an incense burner and a special crystal ball.

On his way out Hongshir picked up the virtually invisible trail of the cultist again who had come in, stoped by the chest and left again. He was led out of the sewers and to the workshops of the tannery. Since it had snowed in the meantime Hongshir just had to follow the fresh footprints in the snow to one of the worker's barracks nearby. He kicked the door open and loudly ordered the cultist to give himself up in the name of justice. The workers sleeping inside were not amused by what they first believed to be a really bad joke. They were shocked to see one of their's actually jump out of his bed and escape through the backdoor – where he ran straight into Ogin.

The cultist was bound and blindfolded before he was teleported into the prison inside Keeper Merlin's dungeon. There he would stew for a few hours before someone would interrogate him.

In the meantime Jared met with Phil. The dock worker told him of many disturbing developments within the city. Strangely dressed and hooded people have been sneaking around after dark and strange accidents have happened in the mines. The last thing Stan had said before disappearing was that he was following a hot trail that might lead him to an actual secret cult. But the most disturbing piece of information was that the reports and letters both of them have sent have never reached Jared.

In the early hours of the next morning, Hongshir agreed with Aurora to interrogate the cultist together with her wearing the full insignia of priestess of the Light. The man soon broke under their questions and gave up everything he knew for the promise of protection, even if it wasn't much. He had joined the cult merely months ago and didn't know any of the other members except the friend who invited him and during the services everybody would wear masks and hoods. Currently they numbered around twenty to thirty members, most of whom come from the lower districts. Upon joining every new member had to swear an oath sealed by blood never to betray the community under the prospect of unspeakable things happening to them, and this oath had made him stay even after the priest had started to ritually sacrifice cats several weeks ago and he began to doubt his decision. That priest was a foreigner, but he had picked up the Albion accent with surprising ease and was growing harder to recognize by his voice every week.

### - Followed by a silent inquiry:

On the same morning in the city of Iron Briar, Henry and Herveus made their way to the headquarters of the Luthor Trading Company in hopes to meet the head - a mister **Anthony Luthor** - whom they suspect is involved with the cult.

Thankfully, introducing themselves as a Noble and his Knight got them trough most doors fairly easily. It did not take much effort to make it right in front of Luthor's office under the guise of "a potential investor and his retinue".

However the company president had quite a busy schedule, the assistant at the door attested, saying that the earliest he could set up a meeting would be a week from then. That was, until the Noble before him introduced himself as a "Mr. Mason" which turned out to be more important then Henry reasonably thought it would. Henry could see that the assistant had been given orders if someone calling himself Mr. Mason arrived asking to set up a meeting - one does not get a meeting bumped from a week away to first thing tomorrow morning when a schedule is supposedly "booked full" without that much.

And Henry thought it might be a good idea to inquire about that.

"Are you interested in accompanying me for a meal? My treat of course."

The assistant had expensive tastes. He had mentioned enjoying meals at the inn where Henry said he and his companion were staying. That inn was one of the best places to stay in all of Iron Briar and was usually used by Nobles or wealthy merchants arriving in the city to close important trade deals - even the meals there were well above the price range for an assistant.

He took the bait.

Soon enough Henry and the assistant, accompanied by Herveus who ironically excused himself from eating by claiming that "his stomach was acting up", found themselves enjoying a pleasant meal at a table near a cozy fireplace that warmed up and illuminated the dining hall. The assistant, a scribe by the name of **Raymond**, was *very* open to conversation with Henry and soon the two members of the Party had amassed quite a bit of knowledge about the president of the Luthor company. Raymond had no idea but the small bit of knowledge he gave, like information on how the president showing an interest in artifacts around the time Galakatath's invasion was repelled or how he has been contracted by the Institute to dig up for "strange stone circles", soon confirmed what Henry and Herveus had assumed - Luthor was indeed up to something.

The time for lunch had ended and assistant had to return to the paperwork he knew had began to pile up in his absence, the Party members gave their farewells and the pair of the Noble and the (Undead) Knight was left sitting at the table.

"..........you did realize he was flirting with you right Henry?"

"What?! Are you sure?"

"It was kind of obvious, he was drooping hints of wanting to meet you again and he even **winked** several times."

"........Huh. I did not notice that."

Herveus sat amazed on how someone so sharp could be so **dull** at times.

### - A moment to make ready:

While Herveus and Henry were going asking questions, Hans and Hongshir made preparations for a more "hands on" investigation. They would wait for nightfall and use the darkness to cover up their investigation of the mine where several "strange accidents were reported".

First they gathered information.

Some were more successful then others. The people of Albion were still quite wary of foreigners, most of whom a person living on Albion never saw in their entire lifetime, and never felt at ease around Hans, but Hongshir had spent the past months doing Good all around the island and building his reputation - they quickly crowded the Hero in hopes of hearing his grand stories about his battles against Evil.

After finding out what they needed (like when shifts in the mine change and the locations of the supposed accidents) they spent the rest of their day doing final preparations. Hans, the Necromancer he is, was well aware that bodies of the Mortal Races were not in great supply on Albion like they were in the Underworld so to prepare himself just in case the worst happens he went around gathering the next best thing - animal corpses.

A trick he learned early in his study of the Dark Art, people always underestimated just how useful it was having with you a number of small, portable and easily controllable corpses was. Hans, in particular, had relied on this his skill at controlling animal bodies in order of getting him out of more then a few sticky situations back when he had just set up his clinic. Once he was satisfied with the number, he slung his bag of "tricks" over his shoulder and rejoined his comrade Hongshir, who had spent the latter portion of the day centering himself in preparation for what was to come. He too, had a bad feeling about their impending trip and had been replaying in his mind the teachings of his former Master while preforming the katas of the Zantsuken school.

If anyone from Albion was looking at him they would see the warrior preforming slow, almost lethargic, movements being repeated over and over again. But the people of Albion were not familiar with the Way of the Warrior taught in the far off land of Wagashi. Those "slow movements" flowed into one another with a grace and skill that would leave warriors of Hongshir's former homeland silent in awe. In spite of his relatively young age Hongshir had already achieved a level of mastery that normal martial artists would need to pursue for decades. "But it is not enough." the warrior knew, never letting pride and arrogance get the better of him. There were many far stronger then he was - and he would need to prepare himself for the time when he invetitibly faces a far greater Evi...

"Hongshir, are you ready ya? It iz time we went to the mines.".

Hongshir settled his breathing back to normal and wiped down the sweat that was poring down his body, turning over to Hans who was holding a set of miners clothes (prepared for the two as disguises for that night).

"Right. Lets us be off then."

### - The mines of Iron Briar:

"See? Being truthful and honest always pays off" - Hongshir said matter of fact as they walked trough the entrance of the shaft, their seemingly disguises unneeded as the two were allowed trough by the only guard after Hongshir saw it was one of the miners he had been talking to earlier in the day.

"I still do not accept that. You can always tell the truth if all else fails - doing so before that merely limits your options." - Hans retorted as he proceeded to re-animate the contents oft the bag he brought and set loose the shambling cats further down the shaft in order to inform them on how best to avoid the remaining guards on patrol.

"Besides - there was no way to know that the guard at the gate was going to be one of those "Hero fan-boys" that jumps at the option of "aiding a Hero during in investigation" and just **let us trough**.". Hans was still bitter. They were both foreigners but what was with that difference in treatment? He didn't trust Hans farther hen he could throw him yet a few words from Hongshir and it's "good luck on your mission gents.".

It was downright unfair is what it was.

But before Hongshir had got the chance to expand on just why living with virtue was the key to a happy life Hans's cats managed to find the two sites where the supposed accidents happened.

Two sites. One above the other several levels bellow ground. One was a cave-in while the other was a flooded tunnel. Hans weighed his options and, after some thought, decided that they would investigate cave-in first.

Hongshir was quite unhappy with their discovery. Close inspection under lantern light shown signs of stonework far too clean for any non-magical tool. There was no way the people of Albion would be able to recolonize it but Hongshir, a man whose life was destroyed by Dungeon Keepers, would never be able to mistake the work of an Imps magical pickaxe.

They also found signs that several people were caught in the cave in. The Hero knew that he could not save everyone but the thought of "if only we had found out sooner - came to find them sooner..." scratched at the back of his head and made his blood boil.

Once they found all they could the two men decided to head to the other site. It was too dangerous to try and move the stones by hand and, if they were lucky, whatever path they were trying to block could still be accessed from within the flooded tunnel.

Whether or not they had such fortune would be determined by "Kitty 1" (as Hans had dubbed the slightly rotten stooped feline that now dived into the dark waters, unhindered by the need to breathe).

Then she was gone. The connection snapped within a moment as she passed by the still floating bodies some ways down the flooded shaft. In the corner of the zombie-cats vision that Hans had a link to the Necro-Doc could make out the sings of beak marks on the bodies of the miners, along with the distinct circular marks left behind by suction cups.

They had found the enemy.

Hans and Hongshir then marked a circle of the floor as "their territory" as they listened to the Warlocks giving them the results of their efforts to scry the inside of the water and the tunnels ahead. Their suspicions were confirmed as the Warlocks informed them that, some ways down the flooded tunnel, was a small cave within an air pocket. Inside the room sized space were two warlocks, their robes making them easy to recognize, and what looked like to be an elite female Dark Elf soldier.

Their Keeper, made aware of the situation, then *pop*-ed into the circle using Keeper teleportation and formulated the groups plan of action. It was a simple plan: Merlin would handle the Giant squid which guarded the waters and, in the enemies confusion, Hongshir would surface and face them in their confined room - preventing the warlocks from using their more powerful spells.

"He has come a long way" - Hongshir though to himself. He understood what was at stake and the threat the Keepers posed to Albion but now he acted on that with a calm determination that made it clear that the Ril now was nothing like the cowardly Ril from when they met.

Merlin took off his glove and fitted it over the floating force of his Keeper Hand. It was a trick he had learned from his many bouts with Horny. If he did this then he could move the glove and use it as a launching point for his spells a great distance away from his body. He moved the glove trough the dark waters following the instructions that Hans was giving him, looking trough the glowing eyes of "Kitty 2" that had found the hole in the wall where the beast was. The glove, nay, his **hand** came before the gaping maw and winding tentacles of the monster, where Ril channeled every bit of the cold fury he felt for all of the lives that were pointlessly taken, all of the bodies that floated in the water slain and half eaten by the monster before him, and with the crackle of electricity surrounding his body and the beaming of his red glowing eyes he said: ***ELECTRO DEUS.***

The mines shook, the roar of thunder echoing throughout the very mountain as within moments the enormous beast had the life burnt out of it.

Merlin turned towards his comrade and, with no doubt in his eyes said: "The tunnel is clear Hongshir, go get 'em".

The warrior could feel the corner of his mouth turning into a smile: "You become a great leader Ril." - and dived into the water.

It was burning hot. The Keeper Lightning from before had heated up the water to a temperature where most people would avoid touching it let alone swimming trough it. But Hongshir was not **most people**.

The eyes of the Warlocks, who had been roughly roused from their sleep by the noise, as well as of the female Dark Elf widened in shock as the figure of the Martial Artist emerged from the water as he took a sharp breath and steadied his breathing. The water steaming off of his body as his eyes made it clear - **this warrior had come for them**.

It took some time, longer then he had assumed, to deal with them. The Dark Elf was skilled, as evidenced by the would on his neck that he was wrapping with to stop the bleeding. That had probably been the hardest fight Hongshir had for a while time now.

His enemies however, were not so fortunate as to be able to treat their own wounds. Ril had asked him to take them alive so they could be questioned but Hongshir was not about to let them off easy just because of that.

They were alive. Beaten just within an inch of death - but alive. Hans would patch them up and they would be able to talk soon enough.

If he got to work on them fast enough that is. Keeper hand on the now unconscious "prisoners" took them away as Ril moved them and Hans somewhere where the good doctor could do his work.While the two were doing that, Hongshir searched the insides of the cave, turned into a makeshift living space for the minions that he just flattened, and discovered some interesting things. One was a two-way scrying ball and the the other a note. It read:

"*Kidnap the Princess.
They are on to us.
Bring this imp to Portal B"*

### - Good day Mister Luthor:

The morning after the events of the mine, the rest of The Party (Herveus and Henry) come to their scheduled meeting in front of the office of Anthony Luthor. Greeted by his assistant, they are led into the office and witness a curious sight.

"Ah! Sebastion! I have been waiting to hear from you for weeks already........"

Anthony Luthor must have been expecting a different Mason. His expression shifted from relief to frustration as he gestured his assistant out of the room and warned him on how "he would deal with him later".

Luthor had underestimated the two he was dealing with. He had known that Sebastion's nephew had ties to Merlin but in the end that is all he saw: Sebastion's nephew and a ornate bodyguard. An ambitious man who saw the two before him as nothing more then an obstacle in his grand plan.

It was already too late by then. Henry had him right where he wanted him. Herveus watched from behind his helmet as the semblance of calm Luthor had began to chip and crack as the cheerful Wizard prodded and struck Luthor's sore spots one after another. They had confirmed that he was in league with the cultists already, now all they needed to do was to get him to prove his involvement beyond a shadow of a doubt.

They warned him. "Stay away from trouble" they said. "If you involve yourself with Evil it will not be the Albion government you will be dealing with". So, of course, he chased them out of his office. And, of course, as soon as he did he pulled out the two way crystal ball he had been hiding and tried to get i contact with his co-conspirators.

Meanwhile, Henry and Herveus, sitting at a small eatery across the street, in a crustal ball how Luthor's face turned pale as his own crystal ball connected not to the warlocks hiding in his mines - but to a talking skull wearing a top hat.

They watched as he spoke, first confused, then outraged, and then finally speechless and in despair to the skull. He was cornered. Everything he had worked for, everything he had built in his whole life seemed to crash down on him all in a span of a single morning.

He flung the crystal ball across the room and, in desperation, began to grab everything of importance in his office. He opened the secret compartment he had beneath his desk and pulled out whatever wealth and papers of value he had there, all of the papers contain information that might lead to him or incriminate him. He stuffed it all in a bag and planed to make a break for some remote part of Albion where he would wait out the situation before changing his name - starting over.

But before he could begin his new life he was met by two figures, a diabolically short man in robes and a towering knight stood at his office door like grim angels of death - waiting for him. Every excuse he made fell flat. He knew it was over - **he** was over.

Anthony Luthor was then taken to the Dungeon where he joined the prisoners from the evening before for interrogation.

### - Commence Operation: Overwatch!:

After Hans patched up the Dark Elf and her Warlock allies Merlin brought them back to the dungeon and used a crystal ball to check up on Aurora, who informed Ril that the Princess safe in Windholm. Ril, relieved decided to leave the princess mostly to Aurora and proceeded to get the interrogations underway Assigning Hongshir to the Dark Elf Elite, Herveus to Luthor and Hans and Henry to the two Warlock (whose names were Biggs and Wedge respectively)

Hongshir took the approach of trying to convince the dark elf  to take the easy way out cooperate, maybe get a slap on the wrist from The Light and get on with her life. It took a great deal of effort to get anything out of her however she did reveal she was working for Keeper Soolovelli as well as some other minor information. After informing Ril of what he'd learned he went to train.

Herveus walked into the room sat down and simply stared at Luthor for roughly 15 minutes. Luthor, still a bit shaken by the sudden turn of events, broke down quickly, by 5 minutes he was begging to be asked questions and by 10 he was simply giving up any information he could think of to satisfy the skeletal man sitting across from him. He informed Herveus of how he first found out about the cult a year ago after being approached by one their priests who asked him to get into contact with The Institute and offer to help in digging for relics. There were five dig sites but only two of them uncovered potentially working Underwolrd Portals. He also mentioned how the cult leader always wore a mask and had members refer to him as "The Master". After informing Ril of what he'd learned he went to do some paperwork.

Biggs found himself tied particularly uncomfortable wooden chair  when Hans practically kicked the door off of it's hinges and carted in his medical supplies. He spent some time carefully, methodically and with the delicately one would normally reserve for a lover, arranging them in plain view of the prisoner them before making an incision down Biggs's shin (THE F-ING SHINS) before he even asked the first question. The interrogation continued with Hans inflicting pain with a surgical precision, causing an extraordinary amount of pain but only inflicting relatively minor wounds that would heal up in a matter of a week given proper treatment. After breaking Biggs told him that they had brought a lot of supplies to Albion with them most of which were not worth noting and that there were 4 other hideouts like the one Hans and Hongshir had found at the mines. He also mentioned they had a 3 imps, 4 warlocks (counting him and Wedge), 4 Elite Dark Elves in total as well as 3 other people, Priests he guessed though he wasn't sure. After informing Ril of what he'd learned he went to clean his medical tools.

Wedge found his hands bound to a surprisingly comfortable chair as the door was nudged open and Henry carried a tea try over to the table and poured two cups of tea and turned to Wedge and asked him "How many sugars?" after placing 1 sugar cube into Wedge's tea and stirring he informed the man he was rather lucky since Henry didn't really *want* to hurt him he and opened up with not interrogation but instead some casual conversation getting a sense for him and his work environment and lowering his guard. Quickly loosing himself in magic nerd conversations Wedge decided to switch sides and work for Keeper Merlin. Over the course of their conversation Henry learned that Soolovelli was an intelligent man who didn't on the typical brute force tactics employed by Mordred and Galakatath and actually has the the insight to place a level of value in his minions treating them surprisingly well, earning him a degree of loyalty from the people in his employ. He also learns that with the exception of a few elites everyone was surprised by the rather sudden order to kidnap the Princess.

After informing Ril of what he'd learned he stood there.

After sending some minions to deal with the remaining enemy hideouts The Party uses a crystal ball to get in ouch with Aurora so they can swap their newly acquired information. Aurora again informs the party that the princess is safe and sound and also that security around her has been tightened - but that it has been surprisingly quiet. Thanks to this final piece of information Ril was extremely relieved, after all, even if something did come up it was quite clear that Aurora had things cov- "I wonder what the possibility of one of the guards being in on it is. After all, that'd make it much easier to go in and kidnap the Princess without being noticed." Henry thought out loud.

As little as Ril wanted to hear something like that right now he had to admit that they probably weren't put of the clear just yet and so The Party went to Windholm and set up their own perimeter. Hongshir, Herveus and Henry went to Windholm Manor under the simple guise of a Noble and his retinue paying a courtesy visit to the royalt staying in town. Hans and Ril took a more clandestine approach and began using their magic to keep watch both high and bellow, trying to find the enemies likely point of entry.

Just before they left however, "Oh, and just be careful Aurora. I've heard Soolovelli works well with his back against the wall and that's the sorta situation we seem to be heading towards." God dammit Henry!

After arriving giving their cover story and dropping his name Henry was able to make it past they front guard surprisingly easily. Unfortunately, they were swiftly intercepted by Henry's cousin - the royal guard, Levi Mason (who was a bit peeved at her cousin for disappearing only to be seen several times in the employ of an ancient Wizard). It took a while, but after convincing her they might not be the ones their reliable source warned them about and filling her in on the situation slightly she let them go with the warning that she would keep her eye on them.

Not long after the group was informed that the princess was very much interested in speaking with them but was only permitted to speak to one of them at a time and so chose to speak to Herveus first. Over the course of the conversation Herveus answered many of her questions about him and the ancient Wizard Merlin and the Mainland, even revealing that he is an Undead.

Meanwhile Ril and Hans had been watching via crystal ball to make sure things didn't immediately go tipsy-turvy were getting restless and decided to check in with Garl to see how things were going and apparently clearing out the hideouts was proving to be a rather simple task.

This was bad, **things are never this easy,** Ril thought to himself and so, while Hans retrieved one of his undead crows to be used as a scout, he informed Triple H that they'd have to deal with things by themselves for a bit while he and Hans checked the portal dig site out of concern.

And it seems it was concern well placed as when they arrived they found Luthor's secretary and an Institute wizard arguing with a noble who wanted to open the portal. But before they could decide who was winning that argument the crow scout opened it's beak and crowed "nevermore" as Merlin (now possessing Hans) used it to fire a bolt of Keeper Lightning destroying a portal keystone..

As the dust settled the noble turned sky and let out a blood-chilling wail: "***Alicia!***"

### - The Battle for the Portal:

Ril, curious why he yelled that name wished to stay to find out, but Hans advised to go check on the other portal since there was a possibility the other one was also on the verge of activating if this was. Ril agreed and teleported to dig site in Beloveno to check and see if it was in fact compromised.

After a quick Recon, they noticed the guards were still at their posts and not under any attack. To be safe Ril called Thomas Garl to see if he spotted any activities near the portals.Garl responded with disturbing news that the portal they just left is in a commotion.

Ril and Hans teleport back as fast as they could to a scene of suspicious activity near the dig site of the portal and the mining houses on fire with peasants, guards, and miners fighting in the courtyard. Seeing how there was too much for them to handle, Ril had Hans investigate what's going on with the portal while he went to get back-up.

Hans makes his way to the portal dig site, where he finds a suspicious individual fixing the portal while the guards are distracted. He then plays the neutral party card and begins "helping" him, Waiting for his chance to thwart his plans of activating the portal. As long as he can keep his cool.

Ril, after picking up Henry and Herveus, (who just finished his talk with the princess) tells them to go help the civilians while he goes to check on the dig site. When he reached the edge of the dig site he sees what Hans is up to and is confronted by a guard from behind him. Not to bother harming said guard Ril confines him into the earth by summoning Granny Hill's hand.

Herveus, seeing the mine house on fire, rushes in to see if there are an poeple in trouble. Thankfully there weren't, but there was still a large brawl in the square. Herveus jumps in stopping a guard from killing a villager, and demands to know what's happening here when the villager that he "saved" started jabbibg Herveus with a pichfork.

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**Part missing, awaiting: HD-y**

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## Deflagrate muros intervalia

### - Worlds no ~~elf~~ **Human** has ever seen before :

Merlin, tied to the assassin, was hurled through the dimensions and found himself falling in darkness. He used his Keeper powers to slow down their fall, but to his shock he found that the powers he has grown to use like an extension of his self now responded weakly and sluggishly to his command. Shortly after they touched down to the ground ground, the dancing lights and afterimages of the Portal imploding disappeared from this field of view and his eyes grow accustomed to the darkness. Opening all his senses and looking around he realized that he is in a place he hadn't even heard of before.

He was standing on a slope of a hill surrounded by nothing but ragged stones. The sky above was covered in a thick blanket of clouds and only a weak diffuse light barely allowed him to distinguish it from the horizon. But that wasn't the worst: This world had about as much ambient mana as there is water in the desert. Filling up his personal reserves would take a long time. He better budget his mana carefully. Probably even more disturbing was that his connection to his Dungeon was strained and only a fraction of the usual amount of dark mana managed to reach him. His Keeper Sight was foggy but good enough to inform him that his dungeon wasn't doing well. His imps were suffering and his Dungeon Heart was beating like crazy and completely out of sync with his own.

He sat down to contemplate their situation. Considering how the Portals were part of a network (and taking into factor his own knowledge of Dimensional Magic, courtesy of Mordred), Ril deduced that another one should be nearby.

When he turned his attention back to his current situation, the till-then unconscious assassin was gone. He called out to the empty air, knowing that the person in question would not have gone far, and received a response from from a whispering voice from directly behind him:

"*Why shouldn't I kill you right now?*".

But both were aware that was not an option. Not now that they had been sent to an unknown location somewhere in the Underworld. But there were motions they both needed to go trough, as Ril's experience as Merlin had taught him. Evildoers could never team up without an appropriate amount of drama apparently. *It was never that easy.*

So Merlin appealed to the masked warriors sense of urgency. A battle between them would come at a steep price for the victor and would only serve to lessen the chances of making it out of..........wherever **this** was...... alive. He also knew that soon enough Sooloaveli would be in trouble like never before (flanked on two sides by the Dungeon Keeper Siegfried and Raventhorn who have gotten their hands on a new weapon) and made it quite known to his "companion" that should they waste time and energy fighting here then that would simply lower the chances of either of them returning home.

The assassin could only grumble in agreement.

Then on out the two began their journey. They trecked for hours on end and climbed to the top of the tallest looking hill in the area in order to get a good look of the surrounding wasteland, spotting a mountain in the distance that seemed to have life around it (life that was likely attracted to mana, Ril thought). "*That is where the Portal must be*", Merlin stated. But it was too far and too dark to make out any details.

Before they moved on, Merlin noticed that the assassin had not yet treated the wounds that he got during their scuffle back on Albion (as well as that Ril was still feeling a big groggy from the poisoned needles that he had been hit by) and insisted they have a short rest. He even offered a handful of his favorite pralines which were accepted silently and without thanks. They walked for hours and again and again Ril attempted to get a conversation started, but was brushed of most of the time.

Then they ran into the first patrol.

A group of three Demonic Beasts that looked like a cross between dog-sized lizards and insects was patrolling on a ridge nearby and had spotted them. Another one was bursting from the ground only a few feet away. The two started running for their lives. They ran for the mountain and the other monstrous bugs swarming around it. From this up close they also discovered that the whole place was covered in a strange purple fungus. The two ducked into a tunnel in the side of the mountain and made use of their skills (and Merlin's Magic) and managed to get their pursuers off of their trail.

They were safe - for the moment. But the inside of the mountain was turned into the Beasts hive and they could not stay hidden forever. Catching their breath in a small alcove that Merlin had closed off by calling on the power of Granny Hill the two planed their next course of action.

Tunnels covered in that strange goo criss-crossed everywhere. Hopefully one of them would lead them closer to the Portal Merlin suspected to be here. Making a decision that going outside and facing the horde of creatures both on the ground and in the air was not an option the two decided to stay in the tunnels and make their way to either the core of the hive, or to the top of the mountain (as those two areas are the likeliest to be the places where the Portal is).

When they passed a fork in the road, a whispering voice advised Merlin to turn right. It took Merlin a while before he realized that the voice was not coming from his companion behind him. A stranger was projecting his voice telepathically into his head and guiding them through the labyrinth undetected. They decided to follow the directions the voice gave them and avoided danger as they were led to a chamber deep in the hive.

There in that chamber, affixed to the the wall by the fungus, was a being that introduced himself as **Zerathul** and begged them to free him. Upon Ril's prompting he shared the brief history of his world, how the monsters had arrived one day and consumed everything, how they had destroyed the world with abilities that nobody could explain or understand. He also spoke of a Portal near the top of the mountain he had sabotaged to prevent the Beasts from infesting other worlds.

Together the three of them snuck out of the hive and walked to the ruined remains of a town. There they met Zerathul's companions. During the short but formal introduction the assassin mentioned her name to be **Chio**. In the following discussion Merlin learned that the monsters might indeed be Demonic Beasts ruled by a Dungeon Keeper, that magic was a foreign concept to the locals and that said locals had already abandoned hope and only struggled to keep the monsters contained. Ril proposed to leave this world together and blowing up the Portal behind them, offering the survivors a new hope.

### - Lost in Paradise:

Henry woke up lying in the shadow of a big willow tree. It is a warm summer day, dragonflies are circling in the sky above him, children are laughing and playing in a pond nearby, splashing water.

No, not dragonflies. Fairies!

The spy Henry risked his life to save was sitting near the shore watching the children. Henry asked him: "Why didn't you stab me and leave while I was out?", and he answered: "I couldn't for several reasons. One is her," and he points at the group of three children, "and the other one is the guy whose backyard we are in, figuratively speaking."

Only after that prompt did Henry pay closer attention to the kids. Two of them had transparent wings growing from their back while the third one was a blonde human girl of maybe ten years wearing nothing but a white petticoat that was by now completely soaked. **Princess Alicia Summerborn, daughter of Prince Arutha of Albion** .

Alicia vehemently refused to leave this wonderful and fun place and the slightest suggestion to return home just made her more stubborn until she eventually ran away crying: "My father hates me!". It took Henry several hours of soft words and subtle encouragement to make her agree to return home together with him and her kidnapper.

They had been walking for about half an hour when Henry spotted a group of Fairies flying from a tall tower near the horizon – the only building on sight – straight for them. The spy nearly panicked: "They are on to us! Cut your bond! Now!" Catching on quickly Henry willed himself to break them Minion Contract and then went on to assist the spy who was clearly struggling to do the same. Not a moment too soon, as the three Fairie soldiers surrounded them, demanding answers. In the following introduction Alicia demonstrated that even for her age she could act as regally as any princess. The spy again assumed his persona of **Percival Miller**, a member of the private guard of the Summerborns. They told the soldiers that a catastrophic accident with an imploding Portal had teleported them here from Albion and they had no idea where they were or how they could return home, carefully omitting the part of the two grown-ups having been minions until less than a minute before. To their surprise the Fairies turned out to be extremely nice. They offered to help them camp out here in the nature while one of them would fly back to arrange for transportation.

### - Cleaning up the mess:

After dragging the enemy Warlock and unconscious Hans out of the pit and to safety, Herveus found himself surrounded by angry guardsmen and miners. Everyone was pretty on edge after a battle of life and death, an imploding Portal and watching monsters far out of their league bashing it out in the pit.

The guards were distraught and confused, many of them blaming what had transpired on the unknown knight before them. But it took only moments for the situation to turn. Rather then it being them asking questions of the intruder it was Herveus that was the one doing the talking. He chastised them in the same way a drill sergeant would reprimand his tropes, rendering the majority of them speechless as the knight before them lectured them about proper ways to secure a perimeter. Only some of them retorted, unnerved to an extent that even Herveus's imposing figure could not silence them, only to be cut off by the sounds of a chariot heading towards them, arriving from down the road away from the former Portal.

Escorted by two knights on horseback the gilded chariot, clearly of fine quality and design even in the dim light of the faraway fire, slowly pulled up to a stop near the group. One knight swiftly ordered the common guards to stand down and explain the situation. The report of the one of the guards gave was distorted and full of holes, filled with misinformation that made Herveus look like an accomplice of the attackers. Anyone listening could clearly tell the men were not even fully aware of what had just transpired.

The knight then took of his helmet and introduced himself to Herveus in a formal and noble fashion. He was **Sir Harold**, knight of the Royal Guard. He politely asked Herveus to put down his axe and cooperate with him, starting with returning the greeting in kind. Herveus, as a knight himself, could not refuse and raised the viszor of his helmet, reveling the bone beneath. The commoners nearly raised their weapons once more, terified of seeing an Undead for the first time in their lives. And again they were ordered to remain calm and stand down. Reluctantly they complied.

In the meantime another person, a man wearing thick and expensive looking clothes, had stepped out of the carriage and examined the remains of the Portal from the edge of the pit, the other knight never leaving his side. Now that man joined the group to listen to Herveus version of the story. Sir Harald introduced him as the **First Prince Arutha**, Brother of King Albrecht Summerborn and Duke of Iron Briar.

After some back and forth the greater picture became clearer: Days ago, after The Party found the first clues of a Dark Cult in Iron Briar, Sooloavelli's elite minions kidnapped the First Prince's daughter Princess **Alicia** and kept her hidden where she couldn't be found by scrying. They wrote a ransom note to Prince Arutha, demanding a small chest full of gold to be delivered through the Portal. The kidnappers would be waiting on the other side with the girl. This was backed up with a fake report that someone had activated the Portal the day before.

This afternoon the Prince had come here to inspect the portal and get advise from the experts when without warning a Lightning Bolt had severely damaged one of the corner stones. With that option seemingly gone for good, the Prince drove away. But shortly after he left, though, the minions began a desperate gamble. They set the nearby farm on fire and the Vampire somehow put the farmers under his control. While the guards were distracted, the Warlock tried to repair and activate the Portal. They would have succeeded if Keeper Merlin hadn't come back with reinforcements. In the fight the Portal turned unstable and imploded. As a result several people went missing.

Comparing the different testimonies brought the identity of the enemy's infiltrator to light: **Corporal Parcival Miller**, who had joined the guards about half a year ago.

Herveus, feeling sympathetic towards the Prince's plight, swore an oath to search for his daughter and bring her back alive.

Then - Hans woke up.

"There is a time and a place for everything" is an age old saying. Hans hated it. He found it in bad taste to bite back what needed to be said regardless of the circumstances. When Herveus told the groggy Hans that the person who stood before them was the noble whose daughter was kidnapped Hans immediately realized that this man was almost responsible for the opening of the Portal and confronted him about his actions.

Arutha was flabbergasted. This foreigner openly questioned his authority before all the people present. Not only that but he pointed out what he thought were fatal flaws in Autha's thinking. Hans accused him of several mistakes the Prinze had supposedly made in his desperation that could have, if circumstances were only slightly different, doomed the whole Kingdom of Albion.

No citizen of Albion would dare to talk to any member of the royal family in such a manner and it would set a very bad precedent if the Prince allowed that to stand. Arutha warned the foreigner to keep his tongue in check now. He didn't admit to any mistake openly or by his actions, but he invited all of Merlin's minions present to offer their input in a civil manner after they all had calmed down. Then and only then would he grant Hans's words the attention they deserved. But Hans didn't listen and instead continued to throw one insult after another. Eventually enough was enough. Arutha ordered his men to apprehend the Necromancer.

It seemed like another battle was about to break out. The guardsmen cocked their crossbows and the knights readied their weapons, Hans let magical energies flow trough his body and even Hongshir, thought to be miles away in windholm, appered leaping out of a Hero Portal just as the tension reached its peak.

Then Herveus bellowed: "**Cease this NOW!**".

And everything went quiet. The situation that seemed to be teetering on the edge of a knife diffused with by the fearsome voice of the Death Knight. There would be no more blood spilled on this day. Not if he had anything to say about it. Everyone present knew, nay, **was made aware** there was nothing more left to discuss.

Herveus, Hans and Hongshir left the site and returned to the Dungeon as quickly as they could without Keeper Merlin to provide teleportation. There they found the everything in turmoil: The imps were weak and sick, even dying and the other minions were highly unsettled by the Dungeon Heart's hectic and erratic beating.

Herveus met with Thomas Garl in the command center just in time to see Henry lying in the warm summer sun under a great willow tree before the scrying pools fogged over and the image was lost. Thomas, who had been trying to scry the ones who had been caught in the portals implosion, was now cussing loudly as the Spirit of the Mist receded its permission to view the outside world trough it.

But while they were uncertain of the location of their Keeper, Herveus knew where Henry had ended up. The eternal summer like landscape pointed to the fact that his friend was in the Shining Concord Empire - no other place fit so aptly the scenery he had just witnessed.

The Death Knight took command over the dungeon and ordered Garl to assist Jared finding the remaining Cultists on Albion while he himself would restore order amongst the minions while Hans tended to the newly captured Warlock.

Hongshir was tasked to go search for Henry and Princess Alicia.

### - A Heroes Journey:

Hongshir's first stop was at the embassy in Sweetwater. In the darkest hour of the night he knocked at the doors and was let in by a sleepy fairy. Soon all seven sisters joined him for an emergency meeting.

Hongshir quickly summarized what he knew about the fight at the portal and ended with the facts that Merlin, Henry and others went missing and that some of them presumably ended up in the Shining Concord Empire.

The fairies didn't need much persuasion and offered their help, but also regretfully mentioned that there was little they could do since the Mist of Albion blocked all communication to the outside world.

Well. Almost all communication.

In this hour of need, Hongshir turned to a higher power - **the** highest power he could turn to. And in the dead of night, headed to Great Cathedral of Sweetwater to ask The Light for assistance. And his plea for help was answered in the form of a small stone manifesting on the altar: a fist sized Portal Stone of a Hero Portal.

He returned to the embassy and opened the Hero Portal there before the eyes of the fairy sisters. He was about to walk through when the red-haired one, Anise, offered to come along. Encouraged by that example the youngest, Carmila, also offered her help. Hongshir accepted and so the three of them went through.

They appeared on a hill near a harbor city in the warm summer sun shortly before noon. Behind them the Hero Portal closed without a trace.

In the city the Wandering Warrior asked around if people had seen his friend or humans wearing a peculiar coat of arms (there were not many people in the world who could recognize the insignia of the Royal Family of Albion after all, so he drew the symbol down and showed it around). Soon he was convinced that they were not anywhere near the city. But the citizens were friendly enough to point him to the tower that stood watching over the city. Surely he would find help there.

But, as was customary in the Shining Concord, before even hearing his plight a clerk requested that Hongshir register first and apply for a permit to stay. The problems began when he was asked whether he was or ever had been a minion to a Keeper - something that the Hero unabashedly confirmed without hesitation. Honesty was the best policy after all. And Hongshir trusted that as long as his goal and actions were just that he would find a way.

Anise was just about to step in and vouch for him when the Hero stated that he was also travelling with the blessing of The Light - directly. This resulted in not a few astonished reactions as it seemed they were able to verify his statement, as hard as they found it to believe.

He was granted a special permit, the clerk nearly tripping over herself trying to comprehend the situation. He then asked the clerk if they had any knowledge about Henry's whereabouts and the clerk promised to look into it. Tomorrow at the latest they would send him a response.

After that Hongshir booked a room in the cheapest inn in town, a shoddy shack in the harbor frequented mostly by sailors. Anise and Carmila said they would check in with the local garrison and ask for a bunk bed in the barracks there, after they noticed the leers of the inn's patrons. Better not provoke a commotion.

### - Truth Spoken at the Tower of Oracles:

Truly a welcome reception. Fairy hospitality at it's finest Henry would say. It was amazing how nicely people treat they don't think that you work for a maniacal servant of Evil.

The cheery Wizard had, for the whole of the way to the tower, indulged his own curiosity and asked away at his escorts. by the time they had arrived a day later he had already become an expert in matters relating to the area, local gossip and the ecology of Tsunari. Fate however, has this tenancy of loving payback of all kinds. When they arrived in the tower they were treated to a feast, surrounded on all sides bu many very inquisitive Fairy. They soon fell under a barrage of questions, some of them benign, like people asking about the weather on the far off land of Albion, but others were leading, poised like daggers and clearly meant to test the allegiances of the visitors.

It was a rather interesting game, Henry mused to himself. Most of the people in the room were not even aware of what was going on. The "players" were a seemingly cheery old man with a grey beard (Henry was not even aware Fairy **could** grow beards) and a very ~~stuck up~~ **formal and dignified** older woman, clearly a noble of high standing. Opposed to them were Henry and Percival, who seemed to have used every trick in their respective arsenal to veer the conversation onto some tale involving Heroes or meaningless small-talk of one kind or the other.

An interesting game yes, but one that the allies of convenience were not about to lose. After Henry, who could read people like no other, joined forces with Percival, a deceiver by trade, the two not only managed to safeguard their true identities as (till the day before) Minions of Dungeon Keepers but also to have the crowd hanging on their every word, internally booing down the elderly man as he informed the group that the master of the tower, the Oracle, had requested to meet with them higher up.

Percival, whether that was his real name or not still up to question, was clearly nervous.

He had only heard stories of the Oracles of the Shining Concord and he knew full well that, no matter how good of a liar he was - he was not going to be able to lie his way out of this. He was, most likely, going to die this day. Or at least, he would have, if it was not for the timely assistance of Henry Mason.

**The Oracle of the Fields**, revealed to be the old man they had been talking to for a good latter half of a day, began to ask them "routine questions". In order and one at a time he would ask the Henry, Percival and the young Alicia a myriad of questions, most of them simply for the sake of form or bureaucracy - until he reached the quetion that Percival had dreaded the most.

"*Were you ever a Minion, or have you in any way worked for, a Dungeon Keeper?*"

The question was rather mean spirited. Henry was well aware that the old man was already aware of their identities, or at least had enough credible suspicion to lock the both of them up. So Henry answered the question rather matter of fact, firmly standing behind his convictions and refusing to budge an inch

"*I have. I have only ever worked for one, and only ever intend to work for one. And I fully intend to continue working for him in the future.*".

The conviction, or rather the faith Henry possessed seemed to have touched the Oracle. They were likely he supposed, if they had ended up on the domain of any of his other peers the mere fact that they used to work for Dungeon Keepers would warrant capital punishment, not even to speak of outwardly stating that one intended to work for one again in the future.

But, there was something here, he could feel it on the tips of his wings.

He asked for Henry, and Henry alone, to accompany him outside to a balcony that overlooked the plains bellow. There the two spoke, on earnest, about his "employer". Henry even revealing, while avoiding some of the very personal details, Merlin's true age and his goal to reclaim his Soul.

The discussion was long. By the time it was over the Oracle seemed to feel relived that, at least for the moment, his duties as a noble of the Shining Concord Empire were complete. He could now fulfill his duties as a man that believed in the Good within others.

At Henry's request he agreed to have Percival, who was despondent over the realization that now that his identity was exposed was a liability (and thus someone slated for *disposal*), given over to the country of Albion to be tried for his crimes.

The group would be escorted off of the island and back to their misty isle.

### - The Faraway Nexus:

Ril hoped he had not tossed in his sleep. The nearly vertical pod beds that the Vorlorns used were not exactly what he was used to and he had a **long** day. But, judging by the reaction that Chio gave when he woke up he seemed to have managed to avoid showing that bit of "morality".

That was the problem really. This had been the longest period Ril had to behave like "Merlin" for and it was exhausting. Chio and him were seemingly stuck together at the hip, with neither really willing to let the other out of their sights for long. Even when he rested he needed to do it in a way that never cracked his facade, never let it seem that "Merlin" was any less then he presented himself as - and that took considerable effort.

He always had to make it seem like everything he did seemed effortless. In order to apper regal and in control he had to suppress his immediate desires to exclaim just how hard it really was in his current situation and kill the internal need for someone to give him a "pat on the back" for his labor. He was at present, well and truly, only able to really on himself.

When he talked with Zerathul and his comrades and gathered as much information as he could, he never let his voice crack when he was given smidgens of hope on how they could make it to the Portal.

He never allowed himself to show frustration when he found out that his powers had grown so weak that he was unable to even force a Minion Bond on one of Demonic Beasts they had caught.

Nor did he allow it to be shown just how out of his depth he was when he was first show the strange arcane constructs that were the Vorlorn **Pylons**.

All he had were the experiences he had till now. The battles he had fought until this point and the body and mind he had built by his effort. Oh how he had wished he had Nurgle here to help him analyze the Pylon Crystal, or Henry to do the talking for him. He wasn't a tactician like Count Shambles or Herveus or as good of a negotiator as Melissa!

Could he lead these people? In his mind he knew, the dark memories so firmly rooted into his mind that he confused for his own told him, whispered to him, that he should use the Vorlorns and Chio. If he was on his own, if he used them as bait, he knew he could make it out of here.

He did his best to smother those thoughts and to push them as far back into his mind as he could. He was not that kind of person. He was not evil. He would not leave these people. He **could** not leave these people.

He had to prove that to himself.

But he could not do it alone. if he was to save the Vorlorn people in addition to Chio and himself he would need to get them to all cooperate for a very large scale plan. And for that - he needed to head to the **Conclave**.

### - re-Quest and Request:

Herveus restored order to the Dungeon and set his sights on his next task - getting permission to scry through the Mist again. He set out on his quest to the Sliver Isle to seek an audience with the Spirit of the Mist. Teleporting to Garl Co's port city shop, Herveus proceeded to collect supplies and board the Silver Island ferry.

Upon reaching the island, Herveus was greeted by two members of the Silver Dragon clan, one of whom he recognized as Argenta. The older of the Dragons, whom Herveus had seen before on the island, was not pleased to see the Death Knight standing on their shores once again. After explaining his reason for being there the two dragons escorted him up to the Shrine.

Herveus wasted no time in setting out his offerings and praying for the spirit's aid. Silence, then, the mists outside the room began to flow into the room. Before Herveus' eyeholes formed a being, made of the mists themselves, scarcely larger than a child. The spirit approached the Death Knight, climbed up his armor, and applied a mystical sigil to the Knight's forehead. Information about the sigil flowed into the knight's mind; The sigil would allow one person the ability to scry through the mists and it could be transferred to one other person, once.

The spirit then whispered something to the dragons present and departed.

Argenta and the other dragons present appear concerned about the spirit's message. Herveus asks what the spirit had said, he is told that the spirit has a task for him to complete on the Island of Minos and he should also prepare himself somewhere without a ceiling because his guide is coming to get him.

He pulls out his two-way scrying ball and contacts Thomas Garl (whom he had left in charge of the Dungeon while he was away.). Herveus informed Garl on his situation and transfers the sigil to him.

Shortly after the connection between the two closes Herveus hears the sound of wing beats in the distance.

He doesn't have to wait long before the source of the wing beats becomes clear. Bellowing through the mists, a huge Griffin shining with a divine radiance to and feathers that gleamed a golden color, landed in front of Herveus. The craeture before him was easily the largest griffin Herveus has ever seen. The Griffin glowers at Herveus with a look that communicates both contempt and reluctant acceptance. It seems that the Griffin is the one who has come to bring him to the Island. Herveus returns the Griffin's glare with one of understanding and reluctant acceptance. The Griffin grasps Herveus in its talons and returns to the mists. Herveus is pulled through the air at speeds that will tear the skin off any mortal being. Setting the tone for the rest of his flight, he is surprised at a sudden dip into the ocean catching some seaweed in his armor.

Meanwhile...

In a distant Labyrinth, a Minotaur is working on his ranch when a familiar voice calls out to him. "Xiphos! What are you doing?! Why aren't you ready to go!?" Xiphos looks up from his work to see Doril standing in front of him. Xiphos voices concern for his animals to which Doril reminds him that Old man Dionysus will take care of them while he is gone. Hearing this Xiphos returns home to grab his equipment and joins Doril on his way to the opening in the wall that was discovered. After a great tremor shook their home, the Minotauran people discovered a large opening had appeared in one of the distant walls. Discovering this opening lead to another area the Minotauran Elder council called for a team of skilled Minotaurs to explore this new area.

The opening was only slightly larger than the preceding corridors and exited into an area that is bigger brighter and more open than anything they had ever seen or imagined. They had found themselves in a large room behind them was the opening they had exited from set in a wall of brown stone that seemed to continue forever upward, until it disappeared into a shifting white ceiling. In front of them the room was filled with water as far as the eye could see, until it ended in a strange moving white wall beyond that.

Xiphos, Doril, and the other Minotaurs crafted a boat and set out to explore this new area. While on the boat the group experienced a cold force carrying several smells press against them, as well as the water rising up to meet them, all of it threatening to knock them into the water After a circling the room the group returned to rest at the camp they had set up on the beach.

In the night as they slept they all had a new experience, water falling from the sky. That night was filled with Minotaurs running for the cover of the opening in the wall and a cold wet sleep for them as they hope for it to stop. When the Minotaurs woke up and the falling water had stopped they returned to the shore to check what damage the water had caused to their camp. As they worked the room grew brighter and at one point they had stopped to watch the room fill with a beautiful orange glow. One Minotaur asked "How big must the light stone be to create all this light?" Xiphos responds with "Maybe we'll find out some day."

Around this time...

Herveus had been dunked into the water often enough that he could be confused with a ship's anchor from a distance. He had long accepted that this was something he was going to have to put up with during his flight with the Griffin. Fortunately the speed the Griffin was flying at was enough to knock off most of the seaweed in a few seconds.

Back to...

Xiphos and the group are relieved to find that most of their supplies are intact but soaking wet. After setting their wet supplies near their fire, Xiphos suggests that him and a small group explore the white wall across the water. After a short discussion and vote, in which Doril votes against Xiphos' plan, a small group (curiously, including Doril) leave to investigate the wall.

When the group reached the white wall they found that it was not a wall at all but some sort of cold thick steam. They proceed to travel deeper into the "steam" in an attempt to find anything in it. After a few hours concern turns to panic as the group realizes they are lost. They yell and shout in an attempt to get a response from the rest of the expedition on the shore.

A certain Death-Knight hears mooing in the distance and wonders if the water in his ears is causing him to hallucinate.

No response, then the sound of distant wing-beats and a splash. Xiphos tells the other minotaurs to follow that sound but Doril objects saying it could be dangerous and they should row the opposite direction. Xiphos argues that it could be the others trying to get their attention. Doril retorts that it could be a unknown creature. Xiphos reasons that if there is anything out here, even if it is dangerous, it must it must know how to navigate this steam and they should follow it. Doril relents but states that he thinks this is a terrible idea and he is not helping with the rowing. The Minotaurs, minus Doril, quickly row toward where the sound was heading.

Rowing too quickly as it would seem as they collide with a rock and Xiphos is thrown out of the boat. Separated from the boat and the other minotaurs he can only cling to a rock for dear life, then he hears heavy wing-beats. Bursting through the mist a huge beast flies right in front of Xiphos. Having no chance of swimming to the shore and no other options Xiphos gathers every last bit of strength he has and jumps.

Returning to...

Herveus was expecting to be dunked in the water again, what he was not expecting was for something to launch itself out of the water and latch onto him. While he struggles to throw off the creature that has grappled him he shouts "Get off of me, Creature!". He was also not expecting the creature to respond with an "I can't swim!". Herveus exclaims "You can talk!?", then he notices the creature's fur. The creature retorts with "We don't have time for this bear with me for now!" Herveus grumbles a "fine" as they are carried off by the Griffin.

After a short while the Griffin abruptly turns to a 90 degree vertical angle and ascends until it clears the cliff. The Griffin drops the Death-Knight and Minotaur before landing on the plateau itself. It watches as the two, it ended up bringing with it, introduce themselves. After they are done with their introductions, they move on to the question of why they are here. Learning that Xiphos is even more clueless than he is in this regard Herveus walks over toward the Griffin and asks it why he was brought here. The Griffin stares at Herveus with obvious disdain and nods toward Xiphos before walking a short distance then flying off.

Not having anything else to do, Xiphos decides to gather wood for a fire so he can dry his clothes and fur. Herveus, wanting to dry his armor and bones, decides to join him and the two talk into the night as they sit by the fire.

### - Home on The Horizon:

After being informed that Henry was being escorted to their location Hongshir decided to spend the day sparring with Anise. She proved to be a skilled opponent as, thanks to her brimming with energy after her return to he (very warm) homeland spurred her to make best use of all her abilities. Hongshir couldn't afford to hold back as he and Anise proved evenly matched, she even came out on top near the end due to her making excellent use of her speed and ability to fly. That said, the goal of sparring is to learn from your opponent and Hongshir knew he would be ready the next time he fought an airborne enemy.

After Henry arrived and introduced his companions he confirmed the situation at the Dungeon (receiving some teasing from Hongshir in the process) and was quickly tackled into a hug by Carmilla. Downplaying the significance of his absence Henry asked when they were leaving to be informed they'd be taking a boat to Zyreema in a week. This gave Henry plenty of time to catch up with his fairly good friends.

The travelling group of Henry, Herveus, Princess Alicia, the captured Percival and the two fairies Anise and Camilla arrived at the harbour of Crydee a couple of days later. They learned that a cargo ship would sail to Byzantinole shortly, but they decided to wait for a faster vessel. Yet another few days later a military convoy of five ships would travel north and would allow them to accompany them. The

About half way to Zareemy though, the Captain received news and for reasons unknown to the Party, four of the five vessels turned east. Even Anise and Camilla would only answer that they were not allowed to explain the situation to the foreigners. For the rest of the voyage the captain ordered full speed and double guards, obviously worried to run into trouble. The crew would only relax when they got sight of the first battle cruiser sailing under the flag of the Summus Empire.

On Byzantinople Henry swiftly contacted Kalandra to exchange news. She was worried because for over a week now the Dungeon had fallen silent and all scrying was blocked. Her concernes were not lifted when Henry told her about the Portal incident.

They soon left the city and travveled to the Underworld. To avoid unwanted attention, Henry diguised their group as Minions of Keeper Umbra. That Keeper had such a reputation that no common bandit dared to mess with them. After a while Henry noticed a brooch on Percival's cloak that hadn't been there before. Because it might be a secret message to Keeper Soloavelli Henry confiscated it – just in time, because at the next settlement they had to travel through he noticed a group of minions wearing similar but simpler pins. Henry stayed clear of them before Percival could get any ideas of contacting them.

After many jumps through various Portals they eventually arrived at the one that would bring them home to Albion. But when they stepped out of the misty glow from their last travel they saw they were surrounded by big band, even a small army, of Underworlders. A Death Knight in rusty armor and wearing the insignia of Keeper Soloavelli interrogated them: Where they came from and where they wanted to go. But he got side tracked when he saw through their disguise and demanded explaination. Henry swiftly span a story of them working for Soloavelli as well, showing him the brooch as proof. The Death Knight studied it breefly and explained that he didn't want to have anything to do with that – whatever "that" was. He let them move away, but nobody dared to try to open a Portal to Albion after that encounter.

The Party rented rooms in a nearby inn and discussed the situation. They agreed that it might be best to check on the other Portals Merlin's one was connected to. After that Henry had a long chat with Percival about philosophy, morals, the gods and mostly the choices the master spy of Soloavelli had to make in the near future. Would he try to return to his former master or would he trust in Henry? Henry's words must have reached something, because in the end his captive fell very silent and thoughtful.

### - Conclave**:**

After arriving in the rather empty looking Conclave city Chiho and Merlin were "greeted" by what appeared to be three important looking and their guards all of whom appeared better fed than the rebels. The conversation began by stating that **Judicator Aldarus** would speak on their behalf. Aldarus, skeptical of Merlin's sweet offer of assistance and his claims that there is a "portal" that could lead them from their doomed world, calls him a liar and was about to bring an abrupt end to the conversation when a more feminine voice speaks up and calms Aldarus down. This new voice, the central and most important looking Vorlorn that seemed to hover above the ground instead of walking, said that they will hear this stranger out and allows Merlin inside after he asks to speak somewhere more private.

After asking the be given an object to "sit" on, a concept seemingly foreign to the Vorlorn, the discussion began and Merlin explained select information on the way the portals function and how he believes that the pylons the Vorlorn consume for sustenance are actually converted from mana. The Conclave do not believe this at all and Merlin convinces them to take him to one of the crystals so that he can demonstrate, at which he succeeds in doing so. After seeing there is truth in what Merlin was saying the conversation continued until the Conclave representatives eventually agree to help with Merlin's plan. **On one condition.**

Either the Renegades offer up some of their artifacts to the Conclave, or they hand over the head of Zerathul, who is known as a great criminal and a traitor in the Conclave.

With negotiations brought to a close until they could get in touch with the Renegades once more, Merlin and his stoic companion move to contact their Renegade allies.

With one ambassador and two bodyguards Ril and Chio returned to the Renegades. On their way they nearly ran into a group of scouting Demonic Beasts. Only thanks to their combined efforts and Chio's expertise in misdirection and stealth can they avoid another bloody confrontation. Unfortunatelly Chio's bag tricks was nearly depleted afterwards.
Back at the underground hideout of the Renegades the ambassadors were greeted icily. The negotiations hadn't even begun and the situation already threatened to escalate when the ammbassador laid out the conclaves condsitions. Keeper Merlin stepped in and pointed out that nobody specified when the prize had to be paid and that it could very well happen after they escaped this world forever. Neither faction was truly satisfied with this compromise, but considering that the alternative spelled certain extinction, they eventually agreed.

Next Keeper Merlin presented his plan. A plan that relied entirely on his Keeper Magic and the absolute cooperation of all parties. It also would sacrifice some of their most valued possessions, including all their stationary constructs, including the Nexus and the Pylons.

### - The Skeleton and The Minotaur:

After a brief introduction and some small-talk Xiphos eventually falls asleep in front of the modest campfire the two had made. Herveus however, not having any need for sleep, decided to dry some parchment by the fire and go map out the outskirts of the island they found themselves on. The island proved to be larger than initially expected and he eventually decided to cut through the middle back towards the campsite Xiphos was at.

After waking up Xiphos, rather luckily recognizes some of the areas on Herveus' map and is able to use it to help the two make their way back to the entrance of the labyrinth that Xiphos and all other minotaurs had called home their entire lives. The journey was surprisingly smooth, perhaps for once Herveus could get a simple job done without any complications?

But the steep drop that stood before him begged to differ. To reach the lagoon where the entrance to the labyrinth was located they had to climb down the enormous rockface. But at least the Labyrinth was there, all they had to do was make it safely to the bottom and they would be home free. They were able to scrounge together enough material to create a makeshift rope.

Xiphos was able to make it down just fine, Herveus likely would have made it too if not for the extra weight of his armour. Thankfully he landed in a body of water and not needing to breath all he had to worry about was a few dents in his armour and bone-structure.

Xiphos is quickly crowded by excited friends and family whom he attempts to calm down before they notice the large skeleton in the nearby lake. He fails. The second has weapons drawn and pointed at him for a second time in a week. Luckily Xiphos is able to calm the other Minotaurs down slightly and convince to take the stranger prisoner rather then end him then and there.

After a quick interrogation that Doril involves himself in Herveus is brought before the chief and his council of elders, bound shackled and bereft of any weapons. He ends up explaining how it is he came to be there as part of a favor. The elders view the opening of the labyrinth and Herveus' story about being brought to the Island as a sign from that it is their time to leave and see the wider world and begin debating how to proceed. While Xiphos argued to trust the stranger and follow his advise to start peaceful relations with the outside world, Doril called the Death Knight a monster that would bring misery if not tightly controlled at all times. Of course he would personally take this burden upon him. The debate went on the whole day until eventually the chief reached the decision in Xiphos's favor. Doril stormed off angrily. Herveus finally suggests that they could send their ambassadors to his employer Merlin so that they can help connect those ambassadors with the rest of he world and after some more debate, they agree.

For the next few days Xiphos and Herveus tried various methods to scale the cliff – and failed. When they returned to Xiphos's home old man Dionysios was waiting for them chewing on his favorite berries. He told a story about strange carvings he had found in the deeper levels of the labyrinth in his youth. Maybe new doors have opened there the same way the one to the lagoon did. After a night's rest and preparing for a fight against the wild basilisks living down there, the two warriors headed out. They indeed found an open stone door. The stairs behind it lead further down to an ice-cold room with an basin filled with ice water. A slim ledge along the left wall lead to another exit, but the path was blocked by the upper half of a giant snake-like monster while the rest was hidden under water. A second serpent appeared from the water and tried to slam into the explorers, but its movements were slow and uncoordinated, so Herveus could push Xiphos out of harms way in time. In the end they offered up their rations to the monster and it disappeared to eat, allowing them to pass.

Behind the next door lay a new corridor with rooms to both sides, all of them only containing rubble, dust and ice, except for the statue of a Minotaur raising his battle axe in triumph. There were carvings there, but neither of the two could read them.

Eventually they found another stair leading up. There were alcoves every couple of flights and even some tunnels branching off, but most of them were blocked.

It was daytime again when they reach a door leading outside. Below they could see a narrow path leading down to the plateau while behind them the mountain reached further up into the sky. The stairs continued inside, leading further up to a fortress half built into the rock. On the far end of the central courtyard a slim bridge lead to a single peak and the gilded griffon's nest on top of it.

Nearby a bronce disc as wide as Herveus is tall was half burried under cracked flagstones below the broken remains of the frame it once hung from. It had carvings depicting minotaurs, griffons and ...angels? Herveus wanted to ring the gong in the hopes it would attract the griffon, but instead of repairing the frame, Xiphos threw the whole thing down the cliff.

Shortly after the deafening echoes subsided the magical beast arrived. Herveus asked it why he had been brought here, what his mission was. But not the griffon answered but the minotaur riding on its back. It was old bull Dionysios. He, too, could only guess, but in his oppinion the powers that are decided that the time has come for the minotaurs to leave the labyrinth and explore the world. But it would be best if they had someone to guide them. Why the Guardians chose him of all possible candidates would remain a mystery.

So Hervues decided that it was time to build a ship and sail through the mist, guided by the griffon, if it so willed.

Xiphos went to build a ship following the input and instructions Herveus provided, but in the end they had to admit to themselves that, even if the vessel floated on the surface, nobody knew how to sail it. So they decided that desperate times required desperate actions: They would tame one of the snake monsters from below and have it pull the ship across the ocean. It was certainly big enough. But when they monster tamers went to the icy chamber again, armed with heaps of meat and bait, they discovered that they were not dealing with a nest of giant snakes but instead with one enormous monster with multiple heads - the Hydra from the legends of old.

Eventually they persuaded the wild beast to leave the cave and maneuvered it through the labyrinth and to the ship. With some more minotaurs on boeard they were soon ready to leave in their vessel pulled by the ferocious monster and following another legendary beast into the unknown.

After what seemed like days of travel they lost sight of their guide. They were steering around blindly in the mist until they picked up the sound of a nearby island. dense tropic jungle appeared out of the mist. They had reached Nakiridaani. If they found Jirinai, the city of the Iskai'i, they could contact a shop of the Garl Company, and more importantly, that shop had a functional teleportation pad. But before that, they had to find the place. They left half the group behind to keep an eye on the exhausted hydra while they fought they way through the undergrowth until they reached the east coast and walls of the living city.
Herveus and Xiphos had to pay a visit to the local town hall and brough the news that a new island had been found in the mist and the peaceful minotaurs were interested in good relations. The Iskai'i immediately offered to host the guests with one of the clans until a new ambassy could be built, but Xiphos declined. For now they had to journey on, but they would come back on the offer on a later date.

It took some persuading to make the minotaurs move through the teleportation pad, but eventually they reached the dungeon of Keeper Merlin. Herveus and Xiphos lost no time instructing Thomas Garl to find a way to teleport the hydra over as well.

***To be continued!!!!***

### - The Vorlorn Exodus:

The plan itself was not all too complicated.

The Vorlorn would evacuate to the safety of the Nexus, the only place that is somewhat secure from the Hive. The Renegade Pylons would be abandoned and changed to beacons to attract the demonic beasts - and detonate after drawing enough of them in.

Once the enemy was drawn out as much as they could be a group of our forces would infiltrate the Hive, secure the keystone and move to claim the Portal Room. By modifying the Nexus and making use of its ability to gather magic Merlin would teleport in reinforcements and they would hold the room while he continued to transport the civilians so they can make it trough the Portal.

But it was dangerous. Everyone was aware that, should they go trough with it, there would be no going back. With the Pylons destroyed there would be no future for the Vorlorn here. What is more, they would have to bury the immense grudge between the Renegades and the Conclave (which was much easier said then done, even with a common goal).

Even under the best circumstances, it would be a fierce struggle. One that would entirely really on the blood, effort and sacrifice of all those participating.

Some protested and refused to destroy all of the Pylons. Claiming that, should the alien "Merlin's" plan fail, they would need a place to fall back to. To them, Merlin responded:

"*There is no going back. There is no future here. We will take everything we can carry with us and leave this place. The only way this plan will succeed is if everyone here steels their resolve.*

*We will either make it out of this and grab hold of a new tomorrow - or we will die trying.*"

**And so began the Vorlorn Exodus.**

*(to continue reading about the adventures of The Party please go to the **Journal of an Overlord, Volume 2**)*