Tales of Adventure

The story of the Collectors' of the Forgotten

## Castaway - Cleo Malachi

"We had been hit. T'was a mortal wound too, as it caused the ship to go under and the crew was all washed away. The Watery depths thrashed us about, knocking us against a mess of wooden debris, each other, and a mess of items and hard objects that only logically could've come from our small fishing vessel. In the madness of the sea, many lost their possessions and some even their life - however having an agile mind and keen perception, yours truly was able to dodge the debris that would have destroyed my belongings and in the fiasco even made a nice profit of three silver.

Once we washed up on shore (and after we coughed the water out of our lungs) we checked our surroundings to find the magnificent sight of a most unusual island. The sand was pink - as pink as as the Azaleas that grow in the elven isles. The air shimmered with unstable magic energy, similar to the energy I saw with my Spirit Eye before the ship was hit. However the most unfamiliar and perhaps most exciting part of this island was not the pink sand, or the shimmer, not even the metallic smell of the air - no, by far the most interesting part of this island was the large, umbrella capped mushroom rising from the ground like a mighty Baobab trees, the kind with thick trunks that grow on Mk'Vdari. However the trunks of these brightly capped mushrooms bent under their own mighty weight, and the caps of the mushroom trees bent forward or backwards in all different angles - casting shade in odd shapes on the forest floor. Above that towered a large but undistinguishable tower, rising over the forest of mushrooms.

The only ones left after the ship thrashing us all about were Me and my family, The large curious goliath fellow, and the Elf. Not far away from where we washed up was wreckage in which we found a fellow crew mate - impaled. Through the chest.. with a large piece of wood that splintered off the hull. Stanley, though I did not know him well, will now forever live on only within these pages, for there was unfortunately no way to revive him. Checking our deceased co-worker to see if he could bestow upon us anything of use we found nothing that helped much other then a compass that only raised more questions. Suddenly remembering our encounter with man eating rats the previous day, and afraid of what this island might hold, I cut a small amount of flesh from the poor boatswain and resolved to find a way to soak it in poison at my next possible convenience.

A bit further down the beach was a campsite, so naturally we investigated to find that the campsite was old, however we could tell the campsite had been inhabited not long before we were there. In an abandoned tent just a few feet away from a cold fire pit, we found a curious letter. And so begins the curious tale pf Pythia the Corrupted, a poor woman whom I suspect to have been corrupted with powerful rift magic. The letter was from a man named Whitaker and it was addressed to his mother. The letter read, "Dear Mother, Pythia is certainly unwell, she has led me to a strange island that doesn't even appear on the map of the Isles. She was jabbering on about how it was calling to her in her dreams. You know that I worry for her, ever since she lost the baby. Now she is begging me to go with her into a forest made out of bloody mushrooms because something is wants her to be here. She cannot keep dragging me about the realm, I'm going to get killed out here. - Whitaker"

It was getting late, so we set a fire in the pit and ate what meals we could salvage from wooden barrels washed ashore and slept off the night. When we awoke we resolved to head further into what I shall henceforth refer to as Mushroom Island. Well, most of us did - my imbecile son stayed behind wasted a health potion, lost a hammer, burnt all our wood, and got high....

Anyway once in the forest, it was the strangest thing- as a practitioner of druidic arts I have a special connection with the earth and nature. As I walked however, I could feel the forest pulsating with life, everything moving together yet separately... a perfect metaphor for our coexistence in these isles. There was no doubt however, this forest wasn't what it seemed, further not all of us admitted to it but I can confidently assert everyone in the forest felt they were being watched.

After some time traveling through the forest we came to a clearing with a small brook. Like everything else on the island the brook was different - it glowed a bright blue color and surely must have been altered in nature due to unstable magic in the area. In the brook we noticed another of our old shipmates, a man named Slog thrashed about in water, convulsing. His eyes were all white and on his back were big slashes, filled with spores. It was then that two hunched humaniod figures covered in mushrooms came shambling out releasing spores and clouds from their fungi. They attacked my dear wife and naturally I jumped into the battle to try and help. I cast a spell I had learned in old book, an old word of power used by angels of Vasilias: Shillelagh. I fended off the beasts for some time but they got the best of me and knocked me unconscious. However, having quite an able group, we were able to overcome the beasts and I was revived by my wife, who luckily for me is skilled as a cleric. It was after that we finally met someone who was alive, our dear old Captain Daniels and the six of us decided to head back towards the beach to rest until the next day, but not before finding a good amount of mushrooms, some picked by my wife who claimed she could use them for cooking and some we found on the bodies of the Mushroomed Mures.

We returned, saw the absolute mess my son had made, and laid down our weapons to talk for a while. We questioned Daniels about his experience on the island and then I began work on this book here. We then spent the night discussing our next move and went to sleep, planning to journey to the monolith the next day. When we did, the boy was still hallucinating on the mushrooms he had eaten and he started to try and tell us that the mushrooms around us weren't mushrooms at all but instead big long trees and plants and flowers. At first we didn't listen; surely the boy was just high. Even when we came upon a large red-capped mushroom that shrieked and shrunk away at being touched we didn't listen to the boy. He tried telling us it was a humanoid figure that was burrowing underground, and the red cap was its head. Well I stabbed the thing to prove the boy wrong ... and then things got weird. The mushroom released a great shriek and started to move slowly away from me. It was then I looked up and saw all these things surrounding us... so I thought it best to move forward with out risking anything.

When finally we reached the monolith, standing tall at the center of the island. To us the monolith seemed to be solid stone, but to the boy who had eaten a fungus encrusted sea urchin there was a big doorway in the front of the monolith. The Elf, the goliath, and I all started to investigate this monolith; we tried searching it for any arcane influences. We pressed the rock where the boy had seen the door but nothing worked.

At the foot of this giant tower was another old campsite. We found another letter from the man named Whitaker, once again addressed to his mother. The letter read: "Dear Mother, Pythia is gone. I know I promised to keep her safe but I couldn't. She went completely mad in the forest and I chased her all the way into some sort of crypt. I tried my best Mother. But she just kept going. She said that she was a vessel for a greater power; a power that would know all. Then she went down deeper and I couldn't follow. I don't know where she could've gone from here. - Whitaker"

It was then the by walked through solid stone, in to the monolith. Needless to say everyone was a bit surprised. It was after that the goliath had a rather clever idea - he withdrew from his immense bag a small silver mirror. He stood with his back to the monolith, and sure enough - there was a doorway on the monolith in the mirrors reflections. It was then that we had to make a really hard decision. Which mushrooms should we eat to try and get into that thing. We decided we'd test our luck and each of us eat a different mushroom. We each had a different one - my wife an upside down blue one, The Elf had a big red one, and the goliath had an oozing black one.

After eating the mushroom, the giant stone monolith seemed to shake, and morph... and shrink. What the stone turned into was apparently dependent on the mushrooms that you had eaten. After eating mine, I felt a calming sensation. My head felt as if it was being lifted and all colors around me became more vibrant. I felt a happiness in my gut, and a natural curiosity for this strange world. Before me, instead of a huge stone monolith, was a charming little cabin.

Once i was inside the cabin, I felt a cool gust of air arise from down the spiraling staircase. On the wall in front of us was the Crooked Eye, Mitéra's symbol. At the bottom of this staircase was a large offering room, lined with unlit torches. There were giant murals adorning the walls, stretching from the cobblestone floor to the rock ceiling. They showed the divine Goddess, Mother of Creation, as she willed her children into existence. At the end of the room was a stone door, and engraved on it was "Knowledge is given, not taken."

Upon seeing this we also noticed a large brazier in the middle of the room. T'was Mithral and I who decided to burn one of our books, and as I put the book into the brazier the door began to slide open. In this next room were walls, lined with all sorts of extravagant books. In the room were also four armored statues. Once again there was a sealed door this time with the words "Knowledge is earned, not taken." on it.

Mithral and I began looking over these books, both of us being quite fond of the pursuit of knowledge. However when I went to grab a book golden looking book that had the words "Encyclopedia of Everything" the book burned to my hand, and the four statues attacked us. Luckily we all made it out, though my boy did not fare well and at one point had to be protected by my wife who stood over him, holding out her shield in protection.

However, we were able to defeat the terrible stone guardians. It was after this I thought we had earned our right to gain the knowledge on the shelves, but alas the whole thing was a mere illusion. The book turned to ash in my hand, and the rest of the bookshelves faded away. It was then we decided to move on, for this room held nothing of use to us. So, we ventured into the dark next room, where we were in for a pleasant surprise."

-Excerpt from Cleo's book on Rifts and the effects of Rift Energy

## The Deadly Encounter - Gilheart the Fallen

I woke on the beach of what seemed to be an island completely overtaken by a form of fungus, with only Tucker from the ship within sight I assumed the worst for the rest of the crew, but I could not let that deter me from my goal, finding the source of what is going on on this island. I first speak to tucker to see what has happened and if he has seen the rest of the crew, he said he hadn't either. but he told me that all the creatures of the island seem to be infected with this same fungus, and by the way Tucker was acting I could only assume that they have some hallucinogenic properties. I see a large stone object protruding from the islands center so I decide to investigate. I head inland through a dense forest of mushrooms, but the wildlife seems to be very lacking yet I always felt like I was not alone, being watched by something.

After about half a days travel, I make it to this clearing, at first glance it was not anything to interesting but after a second I noticed something, the mushrooms had not infected this area and right at the boarder of the mushrooms there was some sort of magic circle surrounding the area. Near the center of the circle there is a small camp set up so I go to investigate. While I am heading close some spirits come out of the woods and start to attack,I fend them off without too much trouble. Once the spirits left I continued to the small camp and found the skeleton of a fellow Aasimar, he was wearing a pendant to Bahamut, which I ended up taking out of respect for my lord. While I am poking around the circle Tucker comes out of the forest and says he did not want to be alone any longer on the beach, which I can not blame him and it was a relief to have a familiar face around after all the strangeness that the island has offered. We found a small cave entrance in which Tucker crawled in first and I followed close behind, as we are crawling Tucker falls through the floor and we find ourselves in a small storage like room with only a stone door to leave and some strange markings. I eventually break the door down and enter this chapel like room, and to my surprise I find the rest of my party! It was a relief that they were alive, but there were visibly hurt and shaken a bit. Before I could inquire about what happened we were attacked by some of the furniture in the room, the rug almost killed the young boy, nearly snapping him in two, along with this cube of gelatinous acid which gave me and Valok issues of our own. The cube absorbed Valok whole and was slowly corroding away his armor and his flesh, eventually we were able to kill the creature and make it out with as minimal injuries as we could hope for After the encounter we decided to take a rest to regain our strength for the battle took much out of us, sadly without thinking to have someone keep watch, so while we slept a monstrous crab creature, with a shell colored this blue-white mixture, broke through the ceiling and attacked catching us all off guard, but luckily we were able to defeat the beast with little trouble. For some damned reason the boy decided to try and drink the things blood, which sadly did not kill him, but instead turned out to be alcohol, which was quite fascinating to think somethings life and blood could be such a substance. Well besides Old Armaros, with the amount of liquor he could drink in a day you would think he was of the same blood of this crab creature... How I miss him so, I wonder how hes doing in the higher realm. But I digress, once we kill the crab creature we go to examine this goddess statue, which does not seem to be much until we learn of its riddle. We must tell it secrets to get it to move. After we start to tell it secrets it moves a bit, so we all start whispering our secrets to it trying to get it to move enough so that it would be feasible to see whats below it. I tell it one secret, the one that haunts me to this day. After we all give it our hidden stories we see that there is a rope ladder leading down into a completely dark room. We venture down and see that it is a large open cavern, with water ankle deep, and we see this creature that resembles a young girl, to which the rest of the party seems to know of sorts, but we soon find out this...thing that everyone called "Pythia" was turned into a creature of darkness. We engage it in battle, it creates what seem to be perfect mirror images of itself which we slowly are able to disperse and find the original one, but many of the party gets severely hurt and knocked unconscious after the creature gives off this hellish scream. Luckily I am not too harmed by it but it's next attack was something none of us were ready for, it starts t fire off this beam of light knocking everyone but myself and Cleo's boy down for the count. The young boy when seeing his parents fall, he goes to flee the room back up the ladder and leaves me alone with the beast. He then takes the ladder up with him leaving me no way to escape. Alone with the beast I can feel the fear of death creeping up on me, the battle has been fierce and both of us have been badly wounded. Eventually I crushed the beast beneath my hammer, but there was no times for rest, for I had not noticed that the room ahd been filling with water, and the rest of my party was floating or drowning in the higher water. Frantically, I call out to the boy looking for him to help me bring his family to safety. Eventually after much trouble and some forever lost armor and equipment we save everyone from the water and make it out alive.

After we are able to stabilize everyone and make sure they're all able to make the trip back home we do so, but tie up the deserter and treat him like a prisoner for nearly letting us all die down in some pit. We eventually Make it back to our "home" for the time being to which we are greeted by captain Daniel cooking some of the beasts of the island. We discuss the events of the past few days and try to figure out what our next plan of action will be

~Gilheart the Undying

## The Ghost Ship - Dior Malachi

We awoke on the shore of Mushroom island. I, Dior, looked around and saw my husband and son visibly shaken, and the rest of the party seemed the same- except for Valok. He stood a short distance away in a dark circle, eyes red and chanting something... demonic. He fell into the earth as if it gobbled him up. It seemed our party was one less. Our daily tasks already proved to be difficult with six people. After deciding to venture into the beached ship down the shore, our hopes of finding a way off the island were ruined. There was a large opening in the hull of the ship, and none of us had the ability to repair it.

We crawled in and encountered three undead men who were probably crew on the ship. We fought the abominations with Cleo almost dying- once again- in the fight. Then we passed a door that was locked and came to another hallway with many locked doors. The first had an interesting man named Hugo who was obviously a ghost but did not know that he was dead. He was a fine man who turned out to also be the ship's cook. He revealed to me that there had been much trouble between the captain of the ship, Captain Abraham and a man named Esmund.

## Death to the Devourer - Alroy Malachi

I awoke after almost an entire day of sleep, I felt extremely refreshed. While my friends and family were looking for some Giant Octopus I practiced my knots. Mithril eventually found a cave while searching the nearby waters.

My parents, Gilheart, and Mithril all went to the cave while Valok and I remained at shore. We were not as good swimmers and I cannot hold my breath long, but I was not scared. Worried as we were about this mysterious cave, we agreed to go after them in a half hours time. Off they went and I back to my knots I went.

I grew anxious as time past and eventually Valok and I went after them. Once inside the cave, we found a slew of dead bodies. Could my parents be responsible for these gruesome deaths? I was not sure what these things were but I  called them fishmen.

It was here I met with Mithril, my mother, and this eerily familiar wolf. It came close to me and when I reached my hand out, it snapped. That’s when I knew it was my father. I noticed Gilheart was missing and without a word we were on his trail.

## The Fury of Abraham the Accursed - Cleo Malachi

As we woke in the morning, the air was thick with anticipation and the sun seemed to crawl nervously up through overcast skies. Instead of the usual morning ruckus of Jr. bothering everyone and Valok sinking into hell, this morning was filled with an eerie and complete silence. My wife, Dior and I, prepared ourselves, harnessing the magic of the spirits to will them into spells. In the meanwhile, Valok put on his armor and Gilheart readied his weapons while Mithral cleansed his extravagant clothes of filth, and all the while Cleo Jr. was practicing his knots.

The day before had been quite the struggle, what with fighting Dompaklops and having to secure for all these ghosts their miscellaneous favors. At the end of the day, Jr. had snuck upstairs to the top deck of the Annabel Lee to scout. He came back with a rather crude drawing and information about Abraham and his skeletal crew. Abraham apparently stood towards the back of the ship with a skeletal crew working the rigging on the shipwrecked boat and a crow.

After that he came downstairs and completed the final favor for the ghostly crew. He convinced Nicolette and her goliath friend to help us. He was able to convince Nicolette that in killing Abraham we would be able to reclaim her lost soul and return it to her. With that she told us she would support us in our cause, but she wouldn't dare face the mighty Abraham in a fight. At this, Jr. asked if she had anything to assist us in our battle, Nicolette was rather useless in that department, however her Goliath friend gifted to us a broken revolving auto-firing machine with three very curious projectiles.

Now, with the full support of the spectral crew, the mutiny was a true mutiny, and we could fave the vile and infamous Abraham. I had hoped to enact a plan with my associates to disarm the revenant Abraham. The plan was to use our combined magics to blind Abraham, then use a rope which Jr. had been concealing from the team which was enchanted with entanglement to contrict Abraham. Once he was blind and constricted Valok would rip the sword from the vile captains hand with the help of my magics to enjance his strength and my wife's to weaken the captqins. Before climbing the stairs to the Captaim I called forth th spirits of nature to strengthen Valok. I gifted him the knowledge of The Bull, aspect of strength.

Also as a part of that plan, Jr. - the sneakiest of the lot snuck up the stairs to the top deck of the Annabel Lee and climbed to the top of a ten foot snapped mast. He readied his bow and prepared to fire, as I myself shrunk into myself and became a snake, silently slithering and sneaking up the set of stairs soon to see a wicked battle. At the top of the stairs I slithered stealthily to the behind the mast upon which my son stood.

Meanwhile the rest of the crew came up. Gilheart and Valok stood, towering over the others on the boat (other than the raised Jr.) looking down on the evil sacks of bone that now stood watching the new and quite alive visitors. Dior and Mithral stood on either side of me, all of them taking attention away from me who slithered on the floor slowly up the steps.

Jr. then shouted in a loud and demanding voice across the ship at a surprised Abraham who suddenly stood at attention facing the boy. "CAPTAIN ABRAHAM! WE HAVE SPOKEN TO YOUR CREW! WE HAVE GAINED THEIR SUPPORT! NOW, PREPARE FOR A TRUE MUTINY!" At this Abraham chuckled, and he flashed a ghostly grin at the shouting boy.

"Ahahaha that's cute. You heard about the last guy who tried to mutiny? Didn't exactly go too well for him. What makes you different?" Abraham said, taking a step forward as the crow, a crow which was black as night and accomapanied Abraham, flew into the sky and began flying circles around the ship.

"WHAT'S DIFFERENT IS WE HAVE THE FULL SUPPORT OF THE ENTIRE CREW! EVEN NICOLETTE. WE HAVE FIERCE WARRIORS AND THE SUPPORT OF YOUR CREW! YOUR TIME AS CAPTAIN HAS COME TO AN END!" Jr. shot back. At hearing about Nicolette, Abraham seemed to get annoyed. He took a step forward and shouted at us, yelling

""FINE THEN! CREW! ATTACK THE SWINE!" with pure hatred in his eyes, as the entire skeletal crew stopped doing their jobs. Two of the skeletons drew old Flintlocks from weathered and worn leather holsters while a third which stood in front of Jr., Valok, Gilheart, Mithral, and Dior. drew a rusty old sword from its sheath. Seeing this Jr. thought quickly and yellled at the crew

"NO! JOIN US! LOOK AT OUR POWER, AT ALL WHO HAVE PLEDGED THEMSELVES TO US. WITH ABRAHAM, YOU WILL SEE ONLY DESTRUCTION. CAST ASIDE YOUR WEAPONS, MAKE THIS A TRUE AND PROPPER MUTINY, AND JOIN US IN OUR PLIGHT!" At this, the skeletons looked around curiously and the one wielding a sword even dropped his weapon.

Abraham cursed his cowardly crew member than dissappeared into a cloud of smoke as everyone aboard the ship jumped into action. Gilheart sprang into action first - he ran up to a skeltal bard holding an old lute, made from decaying wood and snapped strings. His eyes were not eyes at all, but instead two balls of intense and complete anger, and as Gilheart looked into the menacing face of the badr - he smiled. He extended his arm as far back as he could, and brought them together with a thundering slam. It's hard to read the facial expression of a skeleton, but I swear that this bard would have emptied his bowels had he still had them. The clap slammed together with such fierceness that the skeleton was clappped into mere bones, bones which were blown away by the thunderous wave.

I myself had snuck up to one of the skeletal crew and attempted to constrict him, as I did however he was able to catch me as I pounced, and hurl me away and get a shot off at me - though I was able to hurt him before he did so. In the meanwhile, Jr. leapt into the air, doing a flip before landing one of his daggers into the chest of a musket -wielding skeleton. The skeleton was quick to react taking his musket and shooting Jr. twice. The other skeleton on deck, the one whom I had been trying to constrict, also fired off a shot at Jr., and incapicated poor boy who lie bleeding on the ground. Dior rushed to his aide attacking the first skeleton while I continued to fight the second.

While Dior Dealt with a gun toking skeleton, Valok charged on the skeleton who had questioned his accursed captain. In fright, he quickly stopped over to grab his sword, but not before nearly being knocked off balance by an attack from the Goliath. All the while Mithral hid himself behind the mast upon which Jr. had stood, casting magic missile and fireball at the skeletons.

Gilheart ran to the Skeleton that Valok had attacked and finished him off with a gruesome axe attack, while I did the same to the skeleton I had been dealing with, using my snake form to constirct him and crush his bones. Dior used her blade to decimate the musket wielding skeleton who had shot her son twice, using her sword to knock his bones apart, after this she ran to her son who she healed, taking out a healing potion and pouring it down his throat. Jr.'s eyes opened, and he began to breathe again as his bullet holes got smaller and nothing was left but scars. Then Dior used healing word to console her son, and using the magics to further revitalize Jr., who was now left with barely a scratch . While everyone took a breath, Mithral looked to the waves; he saw the waves start to get larger, and felt the wind blow - he felt this was not over yet.

As Mithral contemplated, a giant wave rose from the sea, and rushed down deck - washing everyone up. ,ithral however had been prepared, and as the humungous crashed down on to the deck, he jumped behind a set of stairs which protected him from the brunt of the waves' force. As the wave receded we gathered ourselves and saw what it had left us. Two old, decaying, bloated, water-logged bodies stood near Valok, as well as a moving amourphous blood of water that splashed around at the end of the ship.

Jr. being the most spry recovered from the wave first and ran up one of the bloated bodies near Valok, using his daggers to try and cut him. After Jr. hit the Bloated, he ran with incredible speed for thirty feet and dove away from the creatures, sliding another ten. Additionally, I slithered down the stairs and attacked the bloated that my son had tried to before. Everyone else focused their efforts on the blob of water, Mithral casting spells, Valok using his sword, and Dior her sword. The Blob rushed forward and attempted to absorb Mithral, drowning him. However as he did so Mithral summoned a sudden burst of magic, which knocked back the blob. As Jr. continued attacking the bloated bodies, I tried to join the effort against the blob, however as I did so The blob aborsbed me as it had intended to do to Mithral, and it began to drown me. I was so shocked and hurt that I was unable to continue in Contristor form, and returned to my human aspect.

Luckily Valok was near, who by some stroke of coincidental fortune still had his body fishing hook from our day on Daniels's sloop, and he decided to put our experience to use as he fished me out of the blob. Mithral and Jr. Finished off the one of the bloated bodies combining their magic daggers to blast him and cut him to pieces. Gilheart ran to the other, and punched him off the side of the deck with the ferocity and strength of a madman. Valok and Dior then combined blows to finish off the Blob.

Then, we were hit again with another two waves, one which deposited two skeletons on the side of the boat, then another which deposited two on the back of the boat. A skeleton had appeared at the crows nest as well, and a black myst at the front of the ship materialized into Abraham Himself. His raven accompanied him, flying circles around the ship. Jr. attacked one of the skeletons with his daggers, then dashed away again - also shouting encouragingly towards Valok. I channeled the spirits of nature to summon two spirits - The Unicorn, aspect of protection, and The Doe, aspect of Healing. Valok felt these spirits heal him as he swung at a skeleton. Mithral, at the sight of the undead horrors, took an anxious step back as he flipped through his spell book looking for his spell of protection. Just in time too, as one of the horrors had approached him and began to swing his sword. Suddenly Mithral shouted "Mor!" and a shield appeared on his arm. The skeleton swung, and Mithral held up the shield made from bright yellow magical energy. The sword shattered the shield as sparks of magical energy flew everywhere and Mithral was left with just a small scratch on his arm.

Gilheart, having been healed by the spirits, took the opportunity to climb the stairs and face the Revenant Abraham himself. Abraham used his sword to attack Gilheart, as Gilheart attempted to do the same. Dior ran to the back of the ship where she faced two skeletons who had began using wooden ballista attached to the rear of the ship. She used power taken from her dead god to cast a fear into the heart of the undead before her, who began to flee and cower in fear. The other undead wa not amused and attacked Dior, who began to bleed heavily. Jr. kept harrying skeletons as I concenctrated my energy, and changed aspect to that of the quiet hunter, The Panther. I also willed The Doe to my wife, who leaned down and cured her wounds. Valok ran up to the two undead, one of whom was cowing the other of whom was firing a ballista at our rag-tag team. He summoned forth his power into a magic as a billowing bright flame came pouring from his hand, engulfing the two undead at the rear in flame. Once the flame had gone, only one was left - the other was ash.

Gilheart used the rope which we had intended to tie Abraham with from the beginning, and tossed it at Abraham. At first it landed at his feet, and the enraged Abraham, focused on the heat of the battle stopped for just a moment. He looked down, looked to Gilheart and scoffed. As he did the ropes seemed to jump to life, weaving their way around the Captain, completely entangling him. Mithral in the meanwhile dealt with the skeleton next to him, stabbing him with his daggers. As he did so he began stumbling back towards young Cleo Jr., who finished off the skeleton with his own daggers.

Across the ship Dior had received the healing of The Doe, and she charged back into battle and killed one of the last remaining dead in the rear of the ship. However we had been under heavy fire from a quick skeleton archer who had been non stop firing volleys of arrows down upon us. I, using The Apsect of Agility, ran up the 60 foot mast in the blink of an eye and distracted the Archer whilst my team mates took care of the enemies on the deck. As I ran up the mast Valok saw the unattended ballista and smiled a long and wicked smile. He ran up to the ballista and called upon the Aspect of Stregth with which I had blessed him. Spectral Horns appreaerd on at his forheard and Valok let out a mighty grunt as he ripped the Ballista from its base and started firing the ballista at Abraham from across the ship.

The Revenant, enraged and entangled, had fury in his eyes as he ripped the rope off him, and shreds of the destroyed rope fell to his feet. He attacked Gilheart, who began to bleed heavily. Mithral used a magic missile to fire a few blasts of magical energy at Abraham, who turned to Mithral with an angry look on his face.

Abraham ran up to Mithral, attempting to cut him with his sword. Jr., who was near Mithral saw Abraham come to attack and jumped up, grabbing a bit of rigging tied to the destroyed mast. He swung around and stabbed Abraham, who turned to the boy with a bone-chilling look. Seeing this, Jr. dashed away as quickly as his feet would take him.

## Descent - Cleo Malachi

The spore-infested room was slowly filled with light as the sun snuck its way through the blinds, illuminating the room. Filled with alchemical tools and peculiar looking individuals, the room was a bizarre sight to anyone but the odd and mismatched members of The Seekers of the Forgotten. During night Cleo, Mithral, and Valok had been whisked away on a magical and extraordinary journey through a mysterious realm. On their trip they met once again with the deranged elf Kenny and Cleo's son, Alroy.

Alroy looked almost identically physically, but more aged - and missing a leg. In place of the lost appendage was some sort of metal machination that looked like a leg cast from iron. Alroy also had acquired a new wardrobe; boasting a new top-hat, golden gear-shaped cufflinks, a rather dapper monocle, and a nifty cane. He told his old friends and father that what had only been four days on the Isles was actually ten years for him, who had begun exploring rifts and alternate planes with the drow.

Now, after their whimsical journey was ended, they were left wondering if it was even real - all but Cleo who awoke not only to find the present he had bought for Gilheart lying next to him; but also his son standing at the foot of his bed. After ten long years (for Alroy) he was reunited with his father, and even more had made peace with him. Father and son sat in the mushroom filled room, regaling each other with stories of Kenny's adventure, and tales of different outcomes of mushroom experiments.

As Cleo was showing his son the variety of mushrooms he had collected, and discussing with joyous anticipation his plans for further study - there was suddenly a loud banging on the door. Without any further wrning, the door slammed open as Cleo Jr. stood up straight, growling at the man entering. A bloodied and worn out Balaras flopped into the room and onto the bed, which disturbed a colony of spores that had collected on the sheets, sending spores all about the room.

"Cleo, mate where have ya been?" Balaras said with a grimace as he clutched his stomach

"Balaras you bloody fool, where've you been? Where's my wife?" Cleo said with a straight face as Balaras looked back at him, scared

"Not too sure about wifey, as I was a bit preoccupied trying to protect my own hide. There was a bloody big bug mate. An Ankheg, gave me a right beatin' - thought I was a goner for sure." Balaras said once again with a pained grimace.

"I'm sure she's fine, Dior's gotten her way out of worse things." Alroy said, putting a hand on his old man. Balars, turning and noticing the stranger for the first time turned with a semi-worried expression

"Who the bloddy 'ell are you? You're not going to try and kill me are you?" Balaras asked

"No. Allow me to introduce myself - I am Alroy Malachi. I'm Cleo's son. I was .. uh.. gone for a few years. But I'm back now. And I'm not running away this time." Alroy said proudly.

"Aw how bloody hart-warming...now can someone help me before my heart falls out?" Balaras called out with a very annoyed tone.

"Don't worry Balaras our old friend Captain Daniels gave us the location of a doctor.... I think they call him The Barb-" Cleo was cut off by a loud groan from Balaras.

"Ugh- not the The Barber. Last time he stitched me up he ruined my hair so bad, I had a bald spot for three months!" Balaras protested

"Well, I don't feel like using up the energy to use spells, so unless you've got a better idea I suggest you start writing an epitaph." Cleo said nonchalantly, turning to the mushrooms once more. Balaras grumbled a few curses and finally conceded, allowing Cleo and Alroyelp him to The Barber's, as Jr. kept his nose and ears out for trouble.

Before long they made it to The Barber's, which was crammed behind a long chain of alley-ways and secret passages. When they finally made it, they walked into a shady looking room in which three notable figures stood out among the barber's shop.

There was [INSET CORRECT ORC PHYSICAL DESCIPTION] a red orc wearing white button down shirt, over his shirt was a pin-striped red and white vest with an arm band on either side. Topping his ginormous head was a straw boater, which had a red bit of fabric going around the base of the hat. The orc looked over at the new arrivals, as Balaras fell through the door.

Another man in the room rolled his eyes at the arrivals. This man was unlike any that The Seekers had seen before - in the room sat a large Triton - the underwater people. He wore extravagant armor made from materials from the sea and decorated with all sorts of incredible and unbelievable shells and clams. Behind him was large trident resting on the wall. The man's face seemed to perspire sea-water, as his face was covered in a film of it. His soggy green hair, dangling off his head like seaweed off a rock.

Lastly a suspicious man stand over a table, with a grin on his face. On the table was a whimpering and quite scared looking man - seemingly getting an operation. The Seekers waited for a few moments, and introduced themselves to the less intimidating of the two others in the room - the Triton said that his name was Markos. However he was known to his people as "Tidebringer."

Before getting too far into the subject, the man known as The Barber walked over to the odd looking assortment of people (and a dog).

"Well this is going to be fun! What do ya need this time Balaras?" The Barber said, looking at The Seekers over his crooked nose - which seemed to have sustained several breakings.

"I need to be stitched together - again." Balaras said, not exactly meeting The Barber in the eyes.

"Ah! Would you like me to get The Doctor?" The Barber asked with an eerily wide grin on his face. Balaras groaned, and rolled his eyes as he let out with a sigh

"Ah - uh yes. Get 'The Doctor' would you?" Balaras said annoyed. The Barber disappeared into the back for a few moments. After waiting for a bit a quite similar man came out, this one wearing a doctor's coat. He motioned to Balaras to come to the table.

Once Balaras got onto the table, The Doctor said with a wicked smile - "Of course there is still the matter of your payment." The Doctor started to strap Balaras to the table.

"Typical... one of you lot have a bit of gold to cough up for a dying man?" Balaras asked to Alroy and Cleo. While they began to check their coin purses, The Doctor spoke up again,

"You know, gold is nice. However, I do think I know a better way people with skills like yours could pay me back - and maybe even make a bit of gold for themselves while their at it.

"Of course, and what's the job" Cleo said, quite annoyed.

"I've an old friend. He's scheduled to hang in two days' time and I simply can't allow that to happen. You help me and I'll stitch up your friend here," The Doctor said, though it looked like he was quite excited to begin as he was already readying a large assortment of big and scary looking sharp metal tools, "and what's more - I'll give all of you a bit of gold for lending a hand. We got a deal?"

"Fine, fine. What's his name? The man getting hanged?" Cleo inquired as the fog walked up to him and leaned up against his friend and owner.

"Nathaniel...you probably know him as The Reaper." The Doctor said as he took to Balaras with complete and utter childish glee, as he stitched and poked and prodded through the cut up body of Balaras.