Specks Notes

v
Episode
1

Ø
Meet
up (Thousand Cities of Ishtah)

Ø
Accept
to protect a merchant, Half-Elf, with Shimmer

Ø
Walk
walk walk

Ø
Decide
to place ourselves for the night

Ø
Get
attacked

§
Peeps
in the woods (4?)

§
Shyn
took damage, then hid

§
Thorralien
died 3 times

§
Cheryl
saved Thorralien 3 times (she was under the wagon)

§
Kylie
tried, ended up kicking butts with Thorralien as support

§
Tiku
was shooting the far away one

§
The
merchant was hiding

§
I
was jolting from where the horses were

§
Shimmer
did something

§
Wereshark
came out of the sea to tell us to staph

·
Shimmer
kidnapped

·
Cheryl
and I saw it! Tiku too apparently

Ø
The
ffff?

Ø
We
win

Ø
We
raced off to the closest town

Ø
Bye
bye Shimmer

Ø
We
got to town

v
Episode
2

Ø
We
slept in an inn

Ø
Everyone
goes their own way in the morning

§
I
watch over Thorralien doing his usual bs

§
Tiku
went hunting

§
Cheryl
played music

§
Kylie
found a cleric  (O.O?)

§
Shyn
tried to be a drow and failed

Ø
Thorralien
orders beer for everyone

§
HEY
WE’RE LOOKING FOR A SHARK PERSON! BEER FOR EVERYONE!

§
The
bartender is like SHHHHHHHHH OAO and pretends that he doesn’t know

§
I
give him my prettiest smile

·
The
bartender gestures us towards a guy in the corner who looks like a shark

·
Oooooooh!

·
Yeeeeeeeeeeeep

·
I
nudge Thorralien, but Thorralien is already gone

·
O3O

§
I
look for Thorralien

§
And
goddamnit

§
Thorralien
is next to the wereshark guy

·
HEYYYYYYYY,
WHAT ABOUT THEM WERESHARKS?

·
I
don’t fucking know, get away mate

·
NOOOOOPE,
I know you know.

·
\*throws
him through the window without even letting him the time to speak (how rude)\*

·
The
wereshark comes back in

¨
Others
are coming back from their own business (Tiku, Kylie, Cleric) and see the f-ing
wereshark being thrown out of the window and rushing back in

·
Wereshark
goes to Thorralien, ~~his mates are like ‘’YOU GO WERESHARK! KILL THE HUMAN!’’
(nope, he’s forever alone, nevermind that)~~ Alright, the drunks around are
like ‘our bud is fighting, actually, our bully is fighting, let’s help him
because we’re drunk and don’t think’.

·
Tiku,
Kylie, Cleric walk in. ‘’WTF??????’’

¨
A
ranger, a paladin and a cleric walk into a bar.

¨
Fight
fight fight!

¨
Shyn
gets in at some point

¨
We
fight the 6 drunks, while Thorralien fights the wereshark

¨
2
drunks are killed

¨
The
Wereshark is KOed

¨
4
drunks escape and go get the cops

·
Thorralien
brings the wereshark in our room

·
Tiku
intimidates her way, with mi help (okay, I did), to cook in the kitchen her
bunbuns. Cheryl plays music at the same time.

¨
Cops
show up, Tiku goes ‘’Yeeeeeeah, they ran away. I’m just a cook. You want
bunbuns?’’

¨
Cheryl
is like, yup, what she said

¨
Cops
go hmhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, okay

·
Interrogation
of the wereshark using strength and mi intimidation

¨
‘’I
am tough and will not taaaalk!’’

¨
Tiku
comes back with warm stuff and burns the guy

¨
We
end up discovering that Shimmer is a dargon, that he was taken to a remote island,
that we know nothing of reality

·
Wereshark
tries to escape

¨
Thorralien
blocks the exit

¨
We
all jump on him and kill him (oups)

¨
He
had a tiny magic boat!

·
Explaination
of what today was

¨
Kylie
met up with the cleric, because mayor was a piece of shit

¨
Cleric
explained his all mightiness whatever at some point

¨
He
was investigating the shark business

¨
So
he decided to help us!

¨
He
also mentions the dargonislandthingy

¨
#

·
Thorralien
brings the body out and I follow, others stay in the inn for the night

·
We
meet up outside of town in the morning with the merchant

·
We
tell the merchant that we will be back, he just has to wait in town

·
The
merchant is like …the f- mates? But accepts

·
Off
we go to the water

v
Episode
3

‘‘Where’s
Simbad?’’ asked Thorralien to Shimmer.

I was trailing off behind the group
when I heard voices echo upstairs. Most had arrived already, but they seemed to
have waited for the barbarian to inquire about a missing party member. I
quickly rushed to the main floor, only to see Shimmer shake his head and
explain that he had no idea.

‘‘We were waiting upstairs, like
you asked, when he said that he had something to do and he just walked off. He
didn’t say where he was going, nor why, so I did nothing of it.’’

I didn’t even had to take a look at
Thorralien to feel him crisp a tad and sigh in despair. This mission wasn’t
really going as planned, and we had a certain load of questions for the dwarf.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Kylie, still somewhat affected by the
destruction of her defenses and weaponry, she seemed resigned to waiting. Soon,
her energy spread to the other party members and we decided to set up for the
night; everyone in the living room. This conclusion seemed to come without a
need for any precise explanation; the bogeyman was still observing us from
outside, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, and it was too dangerous to
just walk out and try to reach the next town. From what I understood, we were
bound to be safe, as long as no one invited the fey inside. So I guess it’s nice
that bogeymen have a certain, respect of the personal space rules? We pulled
out our bedrolls, gave the broken swords and shield to Cheryl, so she could
start mending them, and light up a fire. From the window, we could see that
night was starting to fall, but we still had the time to sneak around a tad and
prepare a proper dinner.

As usual, the group spread around.
Shyntlara and Kylie started inspecting the books in the shelves, Thorralien
started inspecting the room and the surroundings, perhaps looking for the
bogeyman, I don’t really know, Tikuris started cooking, and Cheryl simply
mended. On my side, I simply took the map written in celestial characters and
tried to decipher. Not really an easy task, per se. After a while, I finally
caught on; the map was written on in another language, as simple as that.
Obviously, the characters were my own, but the reader has to speak two tongues
to understand it. I am still not sure of which language was used during the
writing of these notes on the map, but I eventually got to understand a few.
They were notes on the locations marked down on the map, as well as different
weapons I believe, and were indicating that someone was after the otherworldly
abilities of the different artifacts. On the right corner of the map as marked
an island with ‘‘roost’’ written on it, as if someone was looking for a nest.
Perhaps the real dragon nest, I can’t be sure. The most frustrating part was
what is written under Aetherius. For some unknown reason, I just wasn’t able to
translate it and it frustrated me to no end. As for Shimmer, I was about to
forget this little Halfling, he did his Shimmer business. We walked around,
observed, spoke to others. Nothing really abnormal.

Soon, the sun had set, we had
settled for dinner and filled our stomachs. Simbad was still nowhere to be
seen, so we decided to go with it and wait for him to come back whenever.
During this meeting period, we looked at the map. I explained what I had been
able to translate to everyone and we decided to head to Tafled, in Gorith, by
passing north to Drovanesti. That means goblin territory, but at least everyone
seemed okay with it. We’d be leaving at dawn.

The meeting was adjourned and
everyone took their places to sleep. I settled next to Thorralien as Tikuris took
position for the first watch. At this point we didn’t have to ask anymore, it
just seemed obvious that the night would go with Tiku, Shyn and then,
Thorralien. I had sent a glance towards the barbarian, in hope to get the right
to help out and take a watch as well, but I guess it’s not something I can do.
He just sent me a quick cold glance and the matter was settled. So as the night
started, I found shelter under my warm blanket and found sleep in no time. I
guess I must have been really tired, because I didn’t wake up again of the
entire night.

\*\*\*

At dawn as I woken up with a start.
Everywhere in the house echoed the loud bells of a gigantic clock with no
physical shape. Everyone jumped on their feet and observed the building in
confusion. I glanced at Thorralien to realize that he had almost pulled out his
sword to attack the damn thing. A small smirk formed on my lips, I guess it was
a scare jump for him too after all. I took a deep breath and kneeled down to
start folding and rolling my blanket; we had to cover as much distance as
possible before nightfall, today. In the corner of the room, the human was
observing us all, he seemed rather hesitant and distant compared to his usual
behaviour. It took me a while, but when I looked up, I realized that he was
trying to say something.

‘‘Hm.. how to say this..?’’ he
started, ‘‘there’s something outside that I think you guys should see.’’

I stood up and quickly headed
towards the main door, since he was indicating that direction with his shoulder
and uneased glance.

‘‘Not you Eilu---’’

I sent a quick glance over my
shoulder towards the human, but he seemed to have abandoned his attempt to stop
me. Next to him, Shyntlara was observing the entire crew walk on as if she knew
what we were about to discover. She had a semi-upset expression that didn’t
truly fit her. I questioned this complicity for a second, but made nothing of
it, perhaps something had happened during her watch—but what? In no time, the rest
crew had reached the door and was observing outside through the window.

‘‘Can someone lift me up? I can’t
see.’’ I looked down at Cheryl and nodded, taking her in my arms to bring her
that the level of the window and enable her to see outside. Truth is that at
that point I hadn’t seen what Thorralien was referring to at all, it just took
me a few additional seconds.

‘‘Oh my-’’ I whispered, when I
realized.

‘‘I told you not to look,’’ sighed
the barbarian, as I slowly placed the Halfling on the ground, to be able to
think. This wasn’t possible, I tried to tell myself. Outside, hanged to
Solinari knows what, Simbad was slowly being balanced by the wind in a constant
and repetitive way. I had seen death many times before, but this time the death
of one of my companions really struck me hard. I took a few steps back and
kneeled down. Why was Simbad outside and in such a position? Why had he left us
the night before, while he clearly knew that there was a bogeyman walking
around? Why had we heard nothing?

On their side, the other members of
the crew were discussing what to do. According to them, Simbad deserved a
proper burial, but should also be killed again, just to make sure that he
wouldn’t be brought back to life. He should be put underground in a proper grave,
while truly, people were supposed to be burnt in order to have a proper
ceremony. Nothing was making sense. Eventually, the team agreed to pack up and
get ready to leave, they’d just have to dig a grave quickly and they’d be done.
Disgusted by the idea, I nudged Cheryl and we decided to go explore the cave
one last time before leaving, just to be sure that we hadn’t forgotten
anything.

Luck wasn’t on our side. As we went
through the books and objects stored in the cave, we barely found anything
useful. Stuck between books of alchemy, I found the only relevant work; notes
written in the weird mixt of celestial and another language. Perhaps with more
content, I’d end up being able to translate the entire map and help the quest
some more.

Empty handed, Cheryl and I walked
back upstairs and joined the group. To my surprise, Kylie had dug a small grave
and Shyntlara was helping to prepare the body of the dead for his last journey.
Sitting in the stairs, Thorralien was observing the whole scene. Gripped
tightly to the back of the barbarian, the spear with an evil aura was currently
facing me. Clearly, it had just been used because a small amount of blood was
tainting the weapon. Forgetting the entire situation around me, I took a deep
breath and grabbed the spear. I used all the strength my noodle arms could
offer me and attempted to pull it away from my travelling partner. Really, one
shouldn’t play with evil forces.

Obviously, Thorralien quickly felt
my sneaky attacked and pulled on the spear, so it would stay on his back. By
doing so, the barbarian threw off my balance and I simply ended up face first
of the floor. I sighed and pushed myself up back on my knees, ‘‘You shouldn’t
keep an evil object so carelessly, we don’t know what it could do.’’

‘‘Oy, it’s a nice weapon and I’m
curious about it, so I keep it.’’

I rolled my eyes and observed the
group one last time; we were ready to go. Simbad was quickly put underground
and covered, and off we went. Travelling up north would be quite an adventure;
we just had to be really careful with the enemies we could meet.

\*\*\*

We walked throughout the entire
day, stopping only now and again to eat and drink. There wasn’t much else to
do, we had to get as far away as possible from the bogeyman’s territory or
else, at nightfall, we would be stuck with the fey at full potential. Considering
that he was probably the one who was killed Simbad, we had concluded that he
clearly wasn’t a being to try to interact with; he’d probably outsmart and
defeat us all.

At some point during the day,
Tikuris decided to walk next to me. Since it was an unusual behaviour, I looked
at her with a weird frown and asked her what she was doing there.

‘‘I wanted to inform you about
something that you’ll most probably judge important,’’  she explained, while sending a few glances at
the other party members; as if to make sure that they weren’t listening. ‘‘Do
you know why Shyntlara wasn’t surprised when she saw Simbad hanging outside,
from the window?’’

I shook my head in reply, as a
frown started appearing on my face.

‘‘It’s because Thorralien woke her
up during the night to inform her of the matter. The body was noticed during
his watch, at the end of the night. Shyn would have noticed it faster than
that, so I’m guessing our murderer was active in the really early hours of the
day. The barbarian didn’t really have any reason to wake up Shyn, but he probably
thought that she would grant him the best advice,’’ a small smirk appeared on
the lips of the elf as she started retreating, ‘‘just thought that you had the
right to know.’’

And with that Tikuris was back by
Shyntlara’s side and I was left to wonder. In front of me, Thorralien hadn’t
heard a single thing of this little conversation and was still walking
carelessly. I guess I wasn’t really worth of his trust anymore. Obviously, next
to a rogue drow of 6’4’’ I could only make a poor impression. She knew how to
fight, how to impose herself, how to be heard; everything a good warrior would
normally know. I bit my lower lip and closed my eyes, this wasn’t relevant;
Thorralien had made a wise choice. That’s what leaders do, make good decisions.
They look at their men, in this case women actually, and find everyone’s
strength. There is nothing to be mad about.. there is nothing to be upset
about..

And so the day went on. We walked
across the country, heading north towards the always more dense forest.

\*\*\*

After hours upon hours of walking
in the always so similar woods, the chain of trees came to a rough end. One
second we were surrounded by the forest, the next, we were in a plain that went
on forever. *It’s really all or nothing*
around here, couldn’t we just get a normal landscape, like in Gorith? Forest
and plains, but also mountains and towns. There’s a bit of change everywhere
you look.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and
pulled me out of my thoughts. “Don’t go so far.” I turned around, surprised,
only to realize that everyone had already stopped walking and was trying to
consider the best path to take to not attract too much attention on us. In a
quick move, I removed my shoulder from Thorralien’s grip and stepped aside. I
sat down in the grass and waited for our *leader*
to take a decision. After all, mister barbarian knew everything over everything
and everyone had to always listen to his wonderful ideas.

Oh look, he was also asking Shyn’s
opinion. I silently growled and turned my back on the group, this was seriously
turning into a joke; if you love someone just tell them. Especially when it’s
as obvious as what was going on between the drow and Thorralien.

I pulled out the map out of my bag
and started observing it. If we were to ever reach the symbol, we had to keep
going north; we were far too close from Droviesti to try to head East just yet.
“I guess we’ll keep going north then.” I jumped in surprise and looked up to
notice that Tikuris had joined my observation of the map. “Yep,” I replied, “if
we’re not too lost, we should be around here right.” While mentioning our
location, I pointed towards a zone that seemed to be both in Vulug’s territory
and Drovinesti. There wasn’t much to calculate our location from, but we had
passed near a gigantic lac, in the morning, so we probably were still quite
close to it.

- get to the end of the forest

- get to the tower with 3 goblins
in

- fight between eiluvial and
thorralien

- 2 goblins killed by tiku, 1
escapes

- settle in the tower

- get surrounded by the goblins

- refuse to surrender

- 14 arrows in thorralien

- kylie heals thorralien

- tiku shoots arrows, I
glitterdust, kylie attempts to get outside and fight

- thorralien tries to go out again
and eats more arrows, tiku takes some damage as well

- we end up surrendering

- Cheryl
disguises herself as a goblin and follows the group, I just hide

- the
group is led by the goblins to a village, I follow sneakily

- I pick
up some clothes from dead goblins and try to cover my skin and hair

- I sneak
around the village, end up getting in the main tent

- leader
is talking to the group of friends, thorralien asks to fight for his freedom
and honor, thorralien fights a first warrior and wins somehow, everyone is
brought in cages for the night

- I follow
and ask what to do

thorralien says that they’ll remain hostage for the night and see how things go

- Cheryl
sneaks around for information while I just fall asleep in an alley, watching
over my friends

- wake up
in the morning when agitation starts building up around the village

- I follow
the commotion by observation

- Cheryl
positions herself in the main tent, Kylie is brought to fight in the main tent

- Kylie
kills her opponent

- Kylie is
brought back and Thorralien is taken out

- Panic
moment

- Shyn is
also brought to the tent where she and thorralien are asked to fight

Thorralien is ready to start the fight

- I notice
a huge bat

- The drow
stops the fights, asks to buy Shyn and kills the chief who weirdly enough
starts making out with his sword

- we
escape in the commotion

thorralien tells me to run to the tower and we’ll join later

- I run
for my life

- I get in
the tower first and wait

- the
group eventually arrives and I jump at thorralien in relief

- we take
our breath back and decide to start walking again, the drow will be following
us

“We
should set camp for the night,” mentioned Thorralien.

I couldn’t help but agree to that
remark. The day had been quite long and it was about time for the members of
the group to get some rest. I, for one, could feel the throbbing of my legs at
each and every single step I took. The pain was becoming overbearing.
Obviously, after a few days in the wild you get used to the regular walking and
non-resting everyday schedule of travelers. Well, most of the time. Some days,
for some odd reasons, your body just decided that it has enough and that this
day would be a pain. On those occasions, you’d wake up with a headache perhaps,
sometimes muscular pain, it depends. But no matter the ill that struck you, it
made the day hard to get through.

Surprisingly enough, it seemed that
seeing your friends become hostages of pathetic goblins, stressing about their
chances of survival throughout the night, attending intensive fights in the
ring throughout which your friends might lose their life, seeing a drow come
out of the blue and kill the leader of the tribe before running of for your
life, and so on, weren’t really good for your body.

I sent a quick glance at the
barbarian opening the path alongside with the paladin and sighed. The drow
would find us before long, especially if he was looking, for some really odd
reason, for Shynthlara. It wouldn’t take long before his bat tracked us and
then we’d be in real trouble. Fighting against that guy was impossible, he’d
crush us to bits in no time really. So I guess it was simply a question of
trying to distance ourselves from him right now, perhaps get strong enough to
fight him by the time he caught up.

But who was I kidding?

In the horizon the sun had started
to set long ago, right now it was simply coloring the sky of a large variety of
shades of pink and orange, indicating sun in the morning. Soon these wonderful
colours would let their place to the dark blue hues and shades of the night
brightened by the small glitter of the stars, like thousands of fireflies.

As usual, the group side tracked
from the main path to get into a thicker part of the woods. We soon would run
out of forest and trees to set camp during the night and would sleep under the
soft light of the moon. It’d be strange after so many nights spent under the
shelter of the trees and covered in the warm halo of the fire light up so
Thorralien and the other non-darkvision adapted people could actually see
something. But for now, we had to enjoy what we had. Perhaps we wouldn’t see
tomorrow, you never know.

We chose a small area surrounded by
large trees, to place our camp. From that point on, we followed the normal
routine of tent setting, wood gathering, fire sparking, food cooking, and all
of that. Before long, we were ready to head to sleep and everyone parted way in
their own spots, either tents or ground, under the careful watch of Tikuris.

Always the first watch to the elf
with low-light vision. Then would come the drow and finally, Thorralien. I was
always afraid of something popping out of the woods during the night and
killing the barbarian without anybody noticing, but he kept reassuring me;
“Stop being scared of everything. If we’re attacked during the night, the point
of someone keeping watch is to wake up the others so we can fight it off. And
anyways, we’re stronger than most of the creatures hiding in these woods; heck
I used to slain giants. No one will die in a goblin territory.”

\*\*\*

-we are
attacked during the night by drakes

- we sorta
don’t wake up fast

- kylie is
putting her armor on

- we fight
and the drakes seem to be focusing on tiku a lot

- acid splash
and tiku dies

- I freeze
the last drake as painfully as I can, freeze his nerves and blabla until he
dies in agony

- in shock
moment

- I braid
tiku’s hair and get her ready for proper death ceremony

thorralien and I light a fire and burn her away after I took a small chop of
her hair

- I watch
over the fire and body through the night

- in the
morning we start walking again, everyone is really quiet

- in the
corner of my eye, I see a weird white horse-like shape follow us through the
day

- we reach
a temple by the end of the afternoon

- the
temple is weirdly enough in a really good state, there’s a fountain in the
middle and the entire area seems really calm and peaceful

- we touch
the water and it heals our wounds

- shyn
puts some of the water in a jar

- I go in
a corner and fall asleep

- I wake
up to a commotion

Thorralien is standing next to a unicorn, people are fighting around

explaination: Shyn went to explore, saw a dark shape, came back in and informed
the group, Thorralien went to see, he called out the drow, the drow showed up,
they fought, the unicorn saved thorralien at the last second, the unicorn says
that we’re not strong enough yet to fight the drow

- the
unicorn says that we’re safe for the night, protected by the temple, we’ll be
teleported in the morning near the tower of magic

- the
unicorn leaves to let us rest

- I cling
to thorralien and sleep in his arms

- in the
morning, the unicorn appears with a large gash, thanks to the drow

- we are
teleported near the frontier

- we walk
in one direction until the forest suddenly stop and leaves place to mud-like
stuff

- we try
to get through, yeah nope. Thorralien throws Cheryl, the shield, thorralien tries
to swim

- Cheryl
eventually wander off and we follow

- we end
up seeing a troll on an invisible bridge that might lead to the tower

- the
troll says that visitors weren’t expected before 3 days, that we were supposed
to be 6, so thorralien and him agree that the first one to lend a hit wins, and
so he’d let us pass

- he lied

- we fight
against him (somewhere, thorralien falls in the liquid)

- we kill
him

- we push
him in the liquid stuff

- a
servant runs to great us, like oh sorry, this wasn’t supposed to happen!

- she
leads us to the tower

- brings
us to the main office of the director with the elevator

- director
presentation and discussion

- map, wizard we met, necromancy,
moving on, ring, spear, tiara, y u a drow, monocle

“Do you
have any other questions?”

I frowned and tried to scan my
head, looking for any additional interrogations. Obviously, none came to my
mind so I just sighed and shook my head. Next to me, I soon realized that the
other members of my crew were doing the same.

“Then I guess I will see you later
this evening; well Thorralien and Eiluvial.”

I nodded as a small smirk formed on
my lips, I couldn’t wait to see the monocle in action! Gorith didn’t have such
technology hidden anywhere in its territory, so I had to grab any possible
given occasion to take a look at those marvelous magical creations. In my
excitement, I had started dancing lightly in apprehension, a gesture soon
calmed by Thorralien’s firm grip on my arm. Brought out of my bubble of pure
happiness, I sent the barbarian a confused look, only to realize that he was
softly tugging me towards the exit of the room. I slightly blushed in
embarrassment and followed my group outside the office; what would the old
wizard think of such a hyped and knowledge-less sorceress?

As Thorralien finally stepped out
of the wizard’s office, the doors closed behind him and a small cloud of purple
smoke formed in front of our party. As first confused, I observed the mist
slowly clog up to take the shape of an individual of average height. The man
observed our group’s member one by one before stating the reason of his
appearance; I guess he was expecting us to speak first, but we failed at
fulfilling that task: “Is there anything you would wish to do, during the
afternoon?”

I bite my lower lip and sent a quick
glance at the party. From their expressions, I soon guessed that they had
plans, hurray me for not planning ahead of time. A short pause followed the
inquiry, soon broken by Thorralien.

“I would like to see where my spear
was taken.”

“I would like to go to the
library,” added Kylie.

“As for me, I would like to see the
progress made on my ring,” stated Shyntlara.

“Is there anywhere I could play the
mandolin?” completed Cheryl with a small smirk.

After this small handful of
replies, to which the butler always nodded respectfully, I awaited an
additional comment: “Is there anywhere where I could cook my bunbuns?” I should
have remembered that this sentence wouldn’t cause Thorralien to roll his eyes
anymore, for Shyntlara to sigh, or simply to make me wonder how in the bloody
hell could anyone enjoy rabbit stew that much. I clenched my fists slightly, it
wasn’t time to cry over that anymore, the dead are a thing from the past and
Tikuris wouldn’t come back. Feeling my heart tighten again, I gave the butler my
reply: “I think I’ll go take a nap.” I really needed some time alone, if just
for an hour or two.

“Very well,” started the butler,
“please follow me.” He asked as he opened the path through the numerous
hallways of the magical tower. “The spear is currently being examined at the
lower levels of the tower. The library is opened to all students at anytime of
the day, feel free to ask for some help in your research. The ring will be
found at the lower levels as well, please follow me. For the mandolin, I can
either show you the path to a room or guide you to the cafeteria. And at last,
I’ll show you your room right away, sorceress, would you kindly take the next
left and follow me?”

I slightly started nodding when I
realized that the cloud butler was starting to divide himself into two
identical beings. Thorralien and I exchanged a glance before I engaged into a
left turn and separated myself from the group. The smaller than usual party
kept walking straight and before long disappeared from my sight; I was now
alone with a small purple cloud.

“So--” I shyly attempted, “how will
we know when the time comes to get back to the headmaster for the meeting?”

“[insert name] will call you over
whenever the time comes.”

“A-alright, thanks.”

“No problem sorceress.”

After that small exchange, the
butler quieted down again and kept ‘walking’ at a steady pace. Before long, we
had climbed down a certain amount of stairs and walked through a few hallways.
In front of us was a series of doors, each leading to dorms I presume? The
butler stopped dryly on his track in front of one of the wooden entrances and
turned the doorknob.

“This is your room, sorceress. Is
there anything else you would need my assistance for?”

I frowned for a second, thinking
about anything I would need, but soon shook my head in reply. I thanked the
butler and walked in my room, all I needed was time alone. The cloud of smoke
nodded in agreement and disappeared soon after.

I was finally alone.

I took a deep breath and walked to
the bed. There, I carefully removed my boots before crawling in the sheets. In
this peaceful cocoon of warmth, I could hear my heartbeat slowly pulsing
through my veins, hear the small and distant chatter of the students in the
other rooms, … Progressively, as I unknowingly allowed tears to run down my
cheeks, the noises became more distant and the light started to fade around me.
Such a quiet and nice atmosphere.

\*\*\*

- knock on my door wakes me up

- big guy standing there, invites
himself in

- gives me the ring for shyn, and
starts asking me about the travels, the reason behind it, where we’re headed,
why, how did we discover the tower (I mention the map, but say that thorralien
has it), he asks about other towers

- I end up not answering and he
leaves frustrated

- I leave soon after, asking the
butler to lead me to thorralien

- I get to thorralien, who’s
talking with the girl

- the guy walks in too, to the
relief of the girl

- thorralien asks the girl why she
was trying to keep him there

- I just tell him that I’m hungry

- he keeps arguing

- I’m hungry

- the big guy tells him that he
should listen to me

- thorralien is about not to when I
say that he should follow that advice, afterall the guy wasn’t shy whatsoever
to invite himself in my room while I was trying to get some rest

- the guy is flustered, thorralien
mad, we leave for the cafeteria

- we find Cheryl in the cafeteria
and kylie soon joins

- I explain what the guy did, to
thorralien

- the group starts discussing about
plans relating to what they’re supposed to do, the disappearance of paladin in
the stars and all

\*\*\*

I sighed and left the cafeteria,
heading towards my room. I couldn’t focus anymore, I wanted to do some magic or
something of the kind, this entire business of travelling was getting too
complicated; I had to take some time on my own to figure out what this all
meant.

As I reached the main hallway,
voices caught my attention. One I recognized and another I had never heard
before. Attentive, I soon recognized Shyn’s cold and awkward tone.

“What do you mean, Tiku’s dead..?”
asked a voice that sounded more like a whimper than anything else.

Blood froze through my veins and I
walked closer to the duo discussing. Shynthlara was talking to a really small
girl curled up with a beautiful lion. The young human had her eyes filled of
questions, apparently she had known Tikuris in a certain past. How terrible
must it be for her to suddenly discover that her friend just—passed away in the
middle of a fight?

“She—was killed by a drake during
an attack 2 nights ago. She was on watch duty and by the time we woke up, she
had already been fighting for a while. She didn’t survive their final acid
blast,” explained the drow with a distance she should have been ashamed of.

Curling up some more in the comfort
of her lion, the human looked miserable and lost. I had to admit that I felt
the same. It had been quite a while since I had last seen anyone die and.. well
the deceased were usually people of advanced age, not children like Tiku. Of
course, she was the oldest of us all, but she looked younger than Thorralien.
She was too young to die, young people were supposed to be immune to death,
death was only a thing for the elderly and the unborn. Before I even realized
so, my eyes had filled themselves with the waters of tears. Without thinking, I
walked to the small human and took her in my arms, sobbing silently in her
confused, but returned, embrace.

“Tiku fought bravely that night,
she really defended us well. We just.. failed at protecting her in return..” I
sniffled and took a step back, brushing off my tears in a single gesture before
applying an attempt of a smile on my lips; “My name is Eiluvial, what’s yours?
And how did you know Tiku?”

“The name’s Skullyana, I met
Tikuris a few years back--”

“Forgive my intrusion, but the
headmaster is ready to see you all,” said a voice. I jumped and turned around
to see \_\_\_\_\_ standing behind Shynthlara.

\*\*\*

- discussion with head master and
monocle

- a guy recognized Cheryl, mandolin
teacher

- try to describe the wizard

- come to the conclusion that it
must be him, but it’s impossible

- the director talks to us about
the huge tree in gorith

- we decide to head for there

- we learn that the students can’t
go because you don’t find that tree when you look for it and you can only find
it once in your life

- give the tiara to the headmaster
for repairs

- the headmaster agrees to teleport
us close to gorith and give us a monocle to communicate on Saturday nights

- he informs us that we’ll be
leaving by the next morning

- we thank him and leave

- shyn takes skull away to talk to
her in her room

- thorralien goes to talk to the
girl

- I talk with the guy, 1 question,
1 answer. I explain a tad about the map, but stay vague with stuff related to
symbols, I translated it, we’re a group travelling, we want to get back to our
village because we fear that something might be up. He’s curious because he
wants to get out of the tower and see the tree, he never really went to gorith,
he asks that we stay in communication and I agree

- off to sleep

- get woken up in the morning and
we head down for the teleportation

- tiara is given back, it increases
electrical powers

- teleportation

- we arrive in gorith

- we stumble upon a group that just
trapped a huge beast and its babies “Oi!”

- they recognize the princess of
copper, supposed to be on exile, they tell us that shit went down in the tafled
village, but don’t really explain more

- we ask them for a nearby village
with horses, they guide us

- we thank them and go our way

- we get horses for everyone

- we rush to tafled

- we fight centaurs along the way
(Cheryl desguises herself, I side step with the horses to give some place to
the others, thorralien lends hits before we’re separated, dehydrating touch on
a centaur, Cheryl damages as well, centaur dies, I shoot another one with
snowball and make his veins explode in frost

- we get back on our horses and
head off

In the distance the Tafled’s
village finally broke the horizon, appearing to our eyes in the beauty of the
sunset. Our hometown finally broke the regular wildness of the forest, a little
piece of a Gorithian civilization in the middle of acres and acres of forest
full of wildlife and giants. Stupid giants.. My heartbeat increased at the
sight of my hometown. Apprehension? Happiness? I don’t really know why. From
here, everything seemed to be alright, there was nothing to break the perfect
structure of our hometown. The buildings were standing tall and strong, no
corpses, no fires ravaging town—actually not really any fire at all. Alright,
there were probably one or two still light up here and there, but that wasn’t
normal. Tafled usually counted a good amount of fires ongoing at all time, for
cooking purposes, to warm up the cold, to smoke the little fish we would find
when we’d leave on long distance trips, and so much more. And now.. There
didn’t even seem to be anyone really.

My hometown looked like a ghost
village from here.

Anxious, I turned slightly to face
Thorralien. A frown appeared on my face, I could just feel it. Was I just
imagining things, getting crazy over something that wasn’t in any way truth, or
was this really reality? It didn’t take long, just a second of scanning the
barbarian’s face in hope of finding his usual calmness. Nothing of that was
visible. Thorralien was as confused as I was about the condition in which the
village standing of us truly was. This wasn’t the hometown we knew, something
had happened and emptied the usually lively streets of our piece of home.
Apprehensive, I tightened my grasp around the reins I was already holding and
gave a firm nudge on the sides of my horse. I had to make sure that this was
simply a dream and that everyone was alright. Perhaps the townsfolks were just
in the woods, hunting or celebrating a recent victory we simply didn’t know of.
Perhaps Eleonore had a vision of another holiday that everyone should
celebrate? That was a possibility—right? As I started increasing my pace down
the hill, I saw a black shape bypass me on my left. Thorralien was doing just
the same as I was, he was trying to get to the village as fast as he could.
He’d probably get there before me, he’d check around quickly and come back out
with a stupid grin, saying that everyone was simply in the main hall.. Yes, he
would.

Behind us, I hear the tapping of
other horses speeding; the rest of the group was following. Poor them, they
probably weren’t understanding anything whatsoever of what was happening right
now. They’d probably blame it on the Gorithian blood, there was nothing to
worry about; I’d just tell them that we were being silly because the town is
alright.

At last, after what seemed like an
hour, our group reached the last 200 meters before getting to the gate of the
town. Suddenly, Thorralien stopped his horse without warning, surprising me and
almost causing an accident. Thankfully, I halted my horse in time and joined
the barbarian’s side. In front of us stood Eshe. The old lady with tired eyes
was the previous oracle, the one that gave her place away 5-ish years ago.
Reading the incomprehension and distress in our eyes, the old woman raised her
hand slightly and stopped us from talking. Thorralien and I exchanged a fearful
glance as the old lady took a deep breath.

“Everyone is gone,” she sighed
helplessly.

- we stare at Eshe for a while

- thorralien rushes in town

- I follow

- all the warriors are gone, only
elders, mothers with young children and pregnant women are left

- go back to eshe “what happened”
“the chief changed since you left, he went north for 6 months, came back with a
new sword and let aetherius aside” \*walking towards the main hall “now
aetherius is stuck in the stone”

- skullyana tried and fell on her
ass. thorralien try to get the sword out, it budged. Skullyana turns the table
into clay “Maybe that’s not the best way to get the sword” “it’s a hunk of
metal” “it’s a magical sword, it won’t agree to such treatment and could decide
to not be nice with you” “it’s just a sword, it’s not alive, it’s not human, so
it can’t think” “well your lion is not human, can it still think?” “it’s not
the same, he’s organic, a sword is metal”
- thorralien puts the sword back in the main chair, so it’s fair (yeah, nope)

- small historic about the last 2
years, saying that the chief decided to stupidly go against the giants, in
their own territory. Eleonore and Volver (a really good warrior of the tribe)
tried to dissuade him, but it didn’t work

- we decide to go after them, but
how, we don’t know where they are. Skull offers to track them by smell

- I go get some of eleonore’s
clothing, find one of her coats. A paper falls from it with a correspondence
between her and a certain marguerite

- go back to thorralien’s place

- skull got meat, thorralien found
coats, shyn wandered off, Cheryl started playing, but no one paid attention,
kylie walked around

- dinner time

- shyn explains that the arena was
recently used, thorralien and her go check while eiluvial is off to get a coat
for shyn (she is invited by elders to stay over)

- cooking session

- eiluvial walks back on an
exhausted duo, gets jealous

- thorralien and shyntlara explain
that they were attacked by rekreti (?) warriors

- Cheryl is extremely tired and
goes to sleep

- eiluvial is really tired (okay
fine, jelly), so she leaves

- she reaches eleonore’s house and
realizes that there’s someone inside, she thinks for a second to go warn the
others, but decides not to

- rainbow! Blinded! KO

- BLACK

- wakes up as the tiefling walks
away

- dark house, no one around, hands
tied

- burnt rope

- hydraulic push because fire

- drenched ==

- shyn says she’s there to help
(hmhm sure yup)

- walks to the door

- tries to snowball the tiefling,
fails

- tiefling blinds her again ==

- something rushes by, hit noise,
wince, apparently the tiefling is ko

Volver- warrior

Letter, magret
kiorn, old warrior, threw an egg at shyn
thorralien and shynthlara are alone, again

“Let’s
bring the Tiefling back to my place.”

I rubbed my eyes in discomfort and
carefully walked towards the noise and voice. Apparently, it was Thorralien
that had passed right in front of me with a blast of wind. He sure had gotten
faster; he hadn’t run that fast when the aquatic being had attacked me in the
cave where Shimmer was held prisoner. I clumsily half-tripped as I walked out
the house by the door I had opened earlier. Curse this spell on my eyes. I
couldn’t see anything what so ever right now and it was really bugging me. I
guess that’s what people I blinded with my cloud of glitters experienced, in
the middle of a fight. No wonder they always flailed so much and were having a
hard time to cope with the on-going battle. That probably also explained why
the enemies usually died before regaining sight.

I took another few steps, always
keeping a slow and steady pace. Perhaps it would have been bright to keep one
of my hands on the wall, instead of attempting to walk in the street like that,
for no reason. To improve, next time I lose my ability to see. In front of me,
Thorralien was starting to move the Tiefling, I could hear rocks moving and
slight groans. I could also see a bigger shape lift a smaller one, with horns.
.. see? Great! My sight was coming back, I could see shadows now. The duo was
only a few meters ahead.

I stopped my progression a meter
behind the barbarian. He had somehow managed to not kill the Tiefling and yet
knocked her out; that was not something I had expected. Usually he was the type
to kill. But hey, who was I to complain? We had to interrogate her, so it was
better this way. At this point he already had managed to take the girl in his
arms. “You’re going to interrogate her?” I inquired.

Thorralien turned around, as if
surprised and looked down at me with a frown. He seemed surprised to see me
there. Thankfully, he quickly shrugged it off, as the other members of the team
joined. For someone who was really close, Shynthlara sure had taken her time,
she had waited for Skulliana to be there, before walking up to us. Kylie was
probably further away, she came by last and seemed to be cleaning her sword
from the blood of individuals. Had the Tiefling brought more companions with
her than the one I met?

From the corner of my eye, I saw
something speed by in the distance. Jumping around from roof to roof, a small
bird with large wings seemed to be having a hard time to focus on his destination
and reaching it. “Have you seen that?” whispered the druid. I carefully nodded
and looked up to Thorralien, he was trying to catch a glimpse of the bird,
without any success. Shynthlara readied her weapon and positioned herself to
fight. Could it be that the shadow I saw was simply a product of my
imagination?

“There’s no need to panic,” I
started, trying to rationalize, “it’s only a bir—“

A feathered helmet appeared out of
the blue and raced down to hit the Tiefling’s head. I jumped in surprise at the
attack and Thorralien also dropped the girl. “What the--?” he said, trying to
scan the surroundings to find the little feathered being. In no time, the
helmet had attacked and disappeared in the air. Visibly striking the girl on
purpose, the little being soon reappeared and smashed her face a second time,
causing a light bleeding to start. “It’s going to kill her!” I yelped in
astonishment. Kylie and I started looking for a pattern in the attacking
behaviour of the helmet, who soon came for a second and third rounds, to no
avail. We couldn’t catch the thing. Skull soon joined the party and started
racing after the small angel and jumping to catch it in the air, but it was
quite sneaky.

“Amateurs,” said Thorralien, as he
dropped the girl to the ground. He waited for the next attack of the small
angel to grab his wings as it attempted to take off flight again. The helmet
screeched and tried to flap his wings some more, but the grasp of the barbarian
was a hella strong one. The being was forced to give up in no time, there was
no way for it to escape now.

“I know what that thing is, it’s a
Cassisian angel!” said Cheryl in excitement. I turned around with a start,
where did she come from? I was sure that she was asleep at the moment, she was
so tired after eating. “Cassisian angels are purely good beings, they really
dislike the evil beings, so I doubt that it’ll stop attacking the horned girl
until she’s dead,” explained the Halfling.
How did she know all of that, I have no idea. To me, it simply looked
like a golden helmet decorated with beautiful ornaments and bearing a set of
large and beautiful wings. I guess they were angel-like in their own way. But
Cheryl had brought an important point that I had to focus on; if the angel was
to strike the demon until death ensues, we had to get them apart, and fast.

Thorralien observed the little
angel with intrigued eyes; he seemed to be doubting the heavenly qualities of
the little being. As he started going through the ornaments, probably in search
for that little proof, I looked at the Tiefling that was now lying on the
ground. We had to get her out of here.

I crouched down and started moving
the girl, trying to pick her up so I would be able to carry her in my arms to
Thorralien’s place; it was way closer than mine. The problem that I soon
realized was that she was slightly taller than me and, unfortunately, heavier
as well. So as I tried to pick her up, I soon found myself back on the ground,
my legs stuck under her. I groaned in pain and took a deep breath before
attempting to lift her up again. Seeing my pain, I think, Skullyana soon
crouched down as well and started helping me to lift up the girl. “I have to
bring her to Thorralien’s place, so the angel doesn’t smash her head,” I
explained. “Got that,” replied the druid with a smile. That said, she started
lifting the body with me, giving as much assistance as possible, to place her
on my back. Before long, the Tiefling was on my back and I was ready to go. I
thanked Skull and started waving at Thorralien, to tell him that I was heading
off. Unfortunately, he was too busy to see my gesture.

Actually, he was trying to put the
helmet on his own head. Before long, the being started screeching and the
barbarian took him off in a yelp. I shook my head and started heading off, some
days, Thorralien really was playing with his life over stupid matters. “Wanna
try?” I sent a quick glance over my shoulder, wondering who the barbarian was
offering the helmet to. Apparently it was Kylie. The paladin nodded and took
the angel with a firm grip, to make sure that he wouldn’t fly off. “You do
realize that this means that you will be taking off your helmet in the middle
of the street, right?” mentioned Shynthlara with a smirk.

Kylie hesitated for a second.

Boy, she sure hated taking off her
armor; I didn’t think that it was that bad.

After some silent additional
seconds, Kylie finally nodded and brought the angel closer to her head. She
took a deep breath and, in a split second, she switched helmet. Everyone stood
there in awe, it really had taken her a split second to pass from one piece of
armor to another one and no one had managed to see her face during that time.
It sure was an impressive skill that she had developed through her years of
being a faceless wanderer.

“Hello Sachiel,” she said. “What is
your purpose in life?” she inquired. “What are you doing in the helmet?” One
does not simply ask an angel why it’s shaped like a helmet. I shook my head
with a helpless smile; I couldn’t hear what the angel was saying anyways, so
might as well just go.

I turned around and started walking
off again, at least the angel was controlled right now, he wasn’t dangerous
anymore.

- My name is Sachiel // What’s your
purpose in life? // … // What are you doing in the helmet? Where do you come
from? // … // Do you want to stay here or do something?

- The wings start retracting, but
then get out again and smashes the tiefling’s face

- Thorralien grabs it and smashes
it on the wall, smashes again

- Humming is getting louder and
louder “Oh yes, what are you gonna do about it, you stupid angel?” Thorralien
tries to put it on, rages, but can’t. Kylie puts it back on.

- “Sachiel? Why are you doing this?
// She’s evil // Okay, but stop being violent. // Evil is violent // Yeah, but
we’re sorta transporting her // Hostages should not be taken. She’s evil. //
and so on

I quickly sent a glance to the
Tiefling that was lying on the ground. Any more impacts of the same style would
probably end up killing her; she already seemed to be in a bad shape. She had
most probably fought the other members of my group, before being smashed on a
wall and knocked unconscious. We couldn’t lose this source of precious
information like that, I crouched down and took her in my arms. The angel
wouldn’t get her like that; I don’t care if she was bound to be our enemy.
Someone’s bloodline doesn’t define who she is. With high levels of difficulty,
I lifted the Tiefling in my arms. Geesh, I hadn’t realized earlier that she was
taller, and henceforth heavier, than me. She was really hard to lift. Probably
seeing my distress, and understanding the importance of our prisoner, Skullyana
rushed to my aid. Together, we lifted the demon on my back and placed her so I
would be able to carry her. “I’ll take her to Thorralien’s house,” I explained,
“this way the angel won’t kill her and we’ll be able to interrogate her.” The
human girl nodded in approval and took a step back. “See you soon.” I nodded
with a smile and took off.

Behind me, the angel kept humming
louder and louder. Oh how I was glad to not stay there.

- Humming grows louder and louder

(that I don’t know but, a pillar of
golden fire hits thorralien in the face, from the helmet. Shyn is blinded for a
few seconds. Thorralien drops the helmet, kylie grabs it and puts it back on
her head. He repeats his same bs. Kylie sings a lullaby. )

- I get to Thorralien’s and tie the
tiefling up

- Thorralien gets there, followed
by the others, Kylie stays away “Go take a walk!” said Thorralien

- Thorralien wakes her up.

- “That was pretty stupid, wasn’t
it.” She stares at me, basically saying fu

- Thorralien tosses me aside and
puts her gag off “Who are you, what is your name and what are you doing here?”

- Thorralien, Cheryl and I get
stunned

- Shyn stealths, Skull laughs

- Thorralien head buts her, she
passes out again

- Cheryl tries to heal her, but
she’s not conscious yet

- “Eiluvial, calm the barbarian!”
“Don’t kill her, we need her!” “I’m not gonna kill her.” “Pass out, wakes up,
pass out, wakes up. We need answers, stop that!”

- Thorralien goes upstairs, gets a
pillow, pushes the tiefling on the pillow “There! Barbarian medics, best medics
of all!”

(Kylie, ray of light  because angel, Fizban appears, cursing the
barrels in which he fell during his teleportation. Kylie asks him what he’s
doing here, “You didn’t have this body, last time we met!” talking at the angel
“What are you talking about” Kylie. “You were just a helmet!” “You know the
helmet?” “Think so, Sachiel, right?” “Yeah. Do you know more about it?” “Is
this some sort of game? 20 questions type thing” “Well, I want to know more
about him.” “What? Are we talking in 3rd person now?” “No-no.
Actually I’m Kylie. Remember when we saved you from 16 cyclops?” “Hm, yeah,
right! Hm—when was that?” “That place.” “Yeah, totally!” “So where are we?”
“Gorith, Tafled tribe” “Oh man, I’m so far out.” “Where were you going?” “Hm
600km north.” “yeah..” “So what are you doing here?” “Well we just met this
angel, I’m kinda trying to calm him down. Because he seems to be quite violent
towards one of our captives.” “Yeah right, that bible passage.” “Yeah.” “You
were with people before right—the guy with the sword? A-and was it the small
girl with a mandolin or a small girl?” “Cheryl?” “yeah! The guy.” “…” “So,
where are you staying? So I can crash there?” “Well.. if you can help, you can
come to Thorralien’s place.” He is pleased. “I won’t lead you there, but I can
tell you where it is.” “…okay?” “I’d rather not cause damage.” “Right. That’s
why I prefer to wear hats that are strictly not sentient(?)” Sachiel was quiet
for the whole convo and then says “I—don’t remember.. him..?” Kylie tried to
find Sachiel’s memories. She can’t read jack shit, but he remember EVERYTHING.)

- Thorralien shakes her up again.
She’s surprised and annoyed.

- “Not fun, eh? Dull mind is a tad
stronger than yours” stare “So, you gonna speak?” she shrugs. “What’s your
name?” “Olvala Daemonblood” Ranner clan. “what are you doing here? (e)” she
points aetherius “I wonder” “How did you know Aetherius was here?” “Word
spreads when weapons are not guarded” ----

- Skull understands on the side and
understands that she’s desperate “She wants to dieeeeeee” sharpening her blade.

- Realize that Eshe hasn’t been
seen in a while. “Have you seen Eshe?” she doesn’t know about the second oracle

- Thorralien puts the tiefling
outside. Argument

- Thorralien drags her outside and
ties her to a post outside.

- Kylie walks in “Hi guys” “Hey,
you’re finally back!” “—have you seen Fizzband?” “what” “huh” “Who the f is
fizzband?” “Yeah, I met him outside and told him that he wcould come over
here.” “What? How?” shyn “He teleported” argumentttttt

- everyone goes to sleep, argument
with thorralien. He agrees to watch over her. Thorralien, Shyn, Sir Buttons

- We wake up and she’s still there.
She didn’t have restful sleep. “Slept well?” “F- u”

- Kylie still has helmet. She tries
to make a pact. Angel agrees to stay

- We go north with Fizban.
Thorralien-Eiluvial, Shyn-Olvala, Fizban has me horse, others are happy

I walked towards Thorralien’s horse
hesitantly and looked up. He was looking down at me with a slight annoyingness
in his eyes. I carefully smiled, trying to show him that it couldn’t be that
bad, but the feeling was still there. I looked down and bit my lip, “you
shouldn’t have to give up on your horse.” He whispered while giving me his
hand. I shrugged and seized the help he was giving me to climb on. Poor horse,
stuck with two riders.

I settled behind the barbarian and
clung to his waist to not fall. This was actually comfortable. I nestled my
face in the fur of his cape and yawned. “Thank you,” I softly mentioned. The
barbarian chuckled and passed his hand in my hair, “no need to mention it.”
With that he gave a small nudge to the horse and we started our progression
towards the north. Next to and behind us, the other members of the team had
started walking as well. We were progressing slowly, but faster than by foot.
Fizban was happily riding right next to Thorralien and me, cheerful expression
on his face, he seemed pleased with himself. I guess that finding yourself a
party to head towards the place you wanted to reach in the first place, without
having to pay them, and in the middle of Gorith is not something that happens
that regularly. But what was he doing this far North anyway? 500-600km deeper
in the lands of the giants and snow wasn’t your typical destination. He was
quite a weird man, most probably not to be trusted.

I shook my head, it wasn’t the time
to start doubting the members of the crew I travelled with. If the others had
decided to agree with him joining the party, I had nothing to say about it.
However, I am not sure that the others remember that today is Saturday and that
I am supposed to communicate with the tower at sundown. Perhaps I should keep
that hidden from the wizard for now, we have no knowledge about the nature of
his motivations. A man that was cleaved in half in front of his group of
friends couldn’t just be standing there, riding, as if nothing had happened. I
would have to mention my concerns to Thorralien at the next break, he always
had a better understanding of situations like this and would tell me if I was
simply being stupid.

Behind us, the rest of the crew was
riding silently. I guess everyone was on their guards regarding the presence of
the Tiefling, Olvala. Shynthlara was in charge of watching over our prisoner.
To do so, she had tied up the Tiefling to the back of her horse and was
supposed to check every now and again to see whether she was asleep or not. We
couldn’t afford to have that sorceress regain her spells. Truth is, I felt
quite sorry for her, yes she had attacked us, she could have murdered me, but
right now she was so helpless. She was simply lying there, exhausted, beaten up
and dead eyed. I truly wished that we would be able to trust her before long,
this way we could let her sleep and rest without fearing for our lives.

But she was our enemy and you had
to make sure that your enemies couldn’t take advantage of you while your back
was turned.

Behind this duo, the rest of the
crew was following. Cheryl was riding her pony merrily, in the back. Skullyana
was keeping close watch on the prisoner, that she originally wanted to tie
behind her horse and let her walk for the entire path; and frequently exchanged
glances with her lion. Where they communicating telepathically? Anyways. Kylie
was closing the walk, obviously since she was our second best warrior. For now,
she was talking to the angel helmet and probably trying to soothe it as much as
possible to prevent confrontation. Time would tell us how efficient that was.

And so the group started its
journey further north. I anxiously closed my eyes and started thinking,
apprehending. I truly hoped that the Doran wouldn’t be as different as Eshe had
said. If he was lost enough to leave Aetherius behind and not listen to
Eleonore’s advice, the situation was probably more lost than anything I could
ever imagine.

- bulette

- we pass by

-magus=negib

-dalamar=head

\*monocle

-laurana

-skull + squirrel

-thorralien op kills the bulette

left the tafled village

got attacked by some bulette

then that night the tiefling got
poisoned but the thing that poisoned her, a raven apparently, got away

skullyana followed the raven to a
barbarian camp

and left

the next night they were approached
by a man asking to talk with them

but he was evil af so kylie just
woke everyone and there was a battle between them and the barbarians

thorallien died

the teifling died

the dude that approached them, who
can shapeshift and teleport got aethurius

and then teleported away

that's where we're at

I headed back to Thorralien’s body
with a calm I didn’t know I possessed. There he was, my protector, my first
actual friend, lying on the ground. Slowly, calculating every move I made, as
if to make sure that I wouldn’t wake him up, I grabbed his flair. Had the
wizard not proved himself to be the worst asshole that had ever existed, I
would have taken Aetherius, but oh well; his turn would come later. Unbalanced,
I brought the weapon up and headed towards the frozen body of the barbarian I
had killed. Oh how I regretted not making his suffering any longer. I stepped
on his legs, filled with open gashes from which blood had tried to escape, when
it was frozen and grew in volume. I should have killed him earlier in the
battle.

I grabbed the flair and, with a
strength I didn’t know I even possessed, I slammed the weapon in the man’s
face. As the metal entered in contact with the man’s skin, electricity races
through his body; burning up the already damaged organs that had kept such a meaningless
being alive for so long. Not surprisingly, coming from such a dirty being, a
terrible smell started meaning from his flesh. I think a part of his hair had
also burnt in the process. Not that I cared what so ever. Unable to use my
electricity this time, for the fight had worn me out, I slammed the flair on
the human’s body another couple of times; filling his pathetic skin layer of
holes and gashes. The mess of guts and blood lying at my feet was finally
starting to look like the monster he was inside.

I stepped off the monster and
walked back to Thorralien’s body, bringing the flair along. It was his after
all, he had the right to get it back. But not in such a state. I would clean it
before giving it back, or else he wouldn’t be happy.

With the same care as earlier, I
grabbed my Gorithian brother’s sword. I couldn’t risk him waking up. The metal
blade in hand, I headed back towards the monster. How funny, he was starting to
attract the attention of animals and bugs. Poor little creatures who would eat
him, they would probably be poisoned by his filthy aura. I had to slice this
atmosphere around him. I took the sword and stepped in the lifeless body again,
this time placing myself in order to face his extremities. And so the work
began.

One after the other, I cut off his
fingers, then his hands, arms, feet, lower legs, legs, … He would never be able
to come back from the dead, he would never be recognized as one of the warriors
of the gods. All he deserved was to return to the filthy hole he was from. Once
completely torn apart, I finally sliced the man’s head off. There, now it was
much better.

Covered in blood, I turned my back
to the body and headed back to Thorralien. Oh my, I really had dirtied his
weapons. I placed them together and drenched them both in water, with one of my
spells, before starting to clean off the blood with my sleeves. Humming softly,
I noticed my beige sleeves turn into dark shades of red I had never encountered
before. Oh well, what was the point of staying clean-ish when there was no one
to do it for. I had been so stupid up to now, always staying in the back of the
group, to cast my spells from a distance. That was not how proper warriors
fought, that was not how Thorralien fought. I had to go in the frontlines, I
had some impressive spells for that as well.

I’d have to do that from now on.

*Please*
forgive me for my decision, Thorralien, but clearly, I am no longer the child
you protected for a year or two. *I*
looked down at the weapons. Oups. I had sliced my sleeve at some different
spots and created holes here and there. Oh well. The metallic weapons were
clean now.

I rolled up my sleeves and
carefully gave them back to my partner. He really seemed to be simply asleep
right now. If it wasn’t for the large gash in his chest right now, I wouldn’t
have noticed the difference. Still humming to myself, I placed Thorralien’s
clothes properly. Wait.. where was his bags of holdings? I raised my head and
observed the group around me. Apparently, Cheryl was currently having the time
of her life with the said bag. I growled, but I would do something about it
later. I looked back down at the barbarian and took his gauntlets off.
Obviously, they were too big, but they smelled like him and so familiar. I couldn’t
let him go without keeping anything. No.. he wasn’t going.

Humming to myself and rocking back
and forth, I stood watch for the whole night.

“Sov nu, lilla vännen min
Dröm ett litet sinnes drömmar
Vid elden stillhet råder
Här ditt folk vakar över dig,»

I kept singing softly.

My eyes were burning at this point.
Throughout the whole night I had watched over Thorralien’s body, making sure
that no bad spirit would take his soul away, but also hoping that he would just
start moving again. I had hoped for hours on end that he would start laughing
and tell me that he was kidding, that this was all a joke and he was alright.
But no matter the time passing, no matter the prayers that I addressed to
Solinari, no matter how much I was ready to give in exchange, nothing
happened.. And so the night passed by, at least I think it reached its end,
because I could now observe shy hues of pink and orange color the dark blue of
the sky. My first sunrise without him in forever.

I just wanted to dig my eyes out, I
did not want to see such thing.

I slightly hiccupped and buried my
face back in my knees, I could feel the tears trying to break out, to run down
my cheeks, but to no avail; I couldn’t bring myself to cry.

Around me, my teammates were, for
the most part, asleep; they had kept themselves busy for a few hours during the
night and now were gaining back their strength. After stealing Thorralien’s
bag, Cherryl had decided to go more on the sidelines and play some mandolin for
a while. It was a wise choice, because had the girl stepped closer, I would
have probably ripped her guts out, to get the bag back; it was Thorralien’s,
not hers. On her side, Kylie had prayed her god for a while, as well. She had
prayed for the salvation of the barbarian’s soul. As if paladin would answer
her prayers; they were completely useless. She should have asked her god to
bring him bag. The more gods, the better, no?

After a while, Kylie had decided to
take care of the body of the Tiefling. She was starting to dig a hole for
Olvala, when I told her that we burnt our dead and that she should respect our
culture. Thankfully, the half-elf listened to my instructions and she burnt the
other sorceress properly. For someone who had started off as an enemy, that
girl had fought really well, during the night. She was really strong and could
have, had he not been so far, probably saved Thorralien. Oh how I wish she
had..

- Looking at team-ish
          Kylie wanted to bury the
tiefling, told her she had to burn her
          Cherryl played soft music
          Skull sat next to me for a while
          Everyone slept at some point,
but I kept watch

- I start making a huge pack of
wood, as the other wake up

- While they’re eating, or
whatever, I take his arm wrists and spark the fire (hair?)

- I stare at the flames until they
start dying down

- Kylie ends up asking what we’re
supposed to do
          Cherryl wants to go south
          I say we head north, finish this
quest so I can show the Doran how much of a morron he is

- Skull supports my claim, for the
sake of the large animals of the north, Kylie for the tree, and Cherryl just
agrees

- Kylie offers to go after the
tribe that attacked us, because according to Skull, they have the angel helmet

- I agree on the conditions that we
kill them all and resume our walk towards the Tafled after

- Deal

- We follow the tracks of the tribe

- We could set camp, but we keep
walking

- At some point, we see 2 shapes in
the distance, walking towards us

- I soon recognize Shyn, so I
gallop to her
          Where were you?

- I try to jolt her, but I hurt
myself instead. I start screaming and jump at her, blaming her for everything

- The knight in black armor next to
her grabs me and holds me

- Shyn is confused, Kylie gallops
to the resuce

- Kylie takes custody of me, while
everyone is screaming in confusion

- I dehydrate touch Kylie, ‘cause
that’s all I have

- Argument over Shyn’s custody, she
is insulted

- Kylie lets go of me and I notice
the sword on the guy’s back

- I ask for Aetherius

- He ends up giving it up to me, saying
that I can’t wield it anyways

- Skull walks over and tells me
that I can wield it
          I pick it up

- Others keep talking and I notice
that there’s a head on the guy’s side

- People talk about their plans

- I ask if he died slowly and
painfully
          Attempt to get it and destroy it
          Daronav refuses, claiming his
kill
          I tell him that I did most of
the job

- We come to the conclusion that he
killed him after I caused a lot of damage
          No reason to keep going off
track
          Kylie forgets about helmet

- WE head back north

- We camp
          I don’t sleep
          Daronav sleeps 2 hours
          Skull, Shyn, Cherryl

- Head back north and find dead
bulette

- We get attacked by dire wolves
and win

- Exhausted now and can barely walk

Keep walking the next day

Noting happens

Skull talks about losing someone to
“if you need someone, im here” reply with “fuck you, dumb bitch im a special
snowflake so you cant get me”

get forced to sleep(Skull,
convinced Cheryl – lullaby spell)

Just before morning, get attacked
by dire woofs again

One almost drags Count Tack away
but skull uses bull strength so it can fight away, but too scared, so uss charm
animal

Found dead bodies due to dire woof
attacks(frosty extremeties, someone forgot to wear their winter stuff!)

Get to camp, they don’t recognize
me

Guards learn I am the princess

Get inside, daronav intimidates
guards so he does whatever the fuck he wants

I go to see eleonor, daronav
followed

Eleonor is keeping something ot
herself again, but damn it get the asshole away from me; mention aetherius,
keep secrets so I leave, so toodles for now. Also mentions a guy who could
replace the doran.

Talk with dunno his name while
walking back, bitching the doran, saying that they will back me up if ever,
then he leaves.

(Daronav goes to bar, runs into the
antipaladin that wrecked the minotaur fomr the slavery episode, and they are
“together”; he tells max to not interfere, but let Eileen do as she pleases
“their plans take precedence over ours”, eventually skull joins up, while
riding her woof. Everyone is dodging the fucker who took off his help with
black fire and the dire woof rider and the paladin, so they drink together.
Daronav mentions he used to follow paladine, but is now evil(took about an hour
for skull to process it, at which point she dropped her beer) so yeah)

Everyone joins up and goes to sleep

We all get woken up to the camp
picking up, even though the unnamed guy said they hadn’t moved in days due to
wolf attacks.

Doran wanted to ride with me, so
was summoned by the unnamed guy. The rest fothe merry band tried their best to
follow and listen in, so skull heard about the wolf attack, and diagnosed giant
hunters with frost dire woofs as the cause.

Went to confront doran, while kylie
got talked to by eleonor, there was a survivor, that’s what lef skull to understand
the thing before

Daronav came up to me, and bullied
me into lending him aetherius for the time being “an unused weapon is not worth
to have”, skull tried to bully him back but he has a 13 in intimidate the
fucker so yeah…

Mae went like “well this was
intense”