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Varrick and Henry Conrad found themselves all alone and in a dangerous situation. They decided to flee and seven refugees followed them. The remaining refugees took off in various directions fearing for their lives’ including those possessed. They found the trail where the wagon was supposed to meet up with them and decided to walk straight in that direction until either it caught up with them or they found a town. It was the latter that they stumbled upon twenty days into their journey where they found themselves in France. They were in a lake town serene and peaceful other than the fact that people were supposedly disappearing as a result of some mysterious force. The two began asking around about medical assistance for the second-in-command and were directed toward a church. Varrick told Henry to deal with it while he went and secured lodgings. When Henry approached the church the priest said “Greetings my child, may I assist you in some way,” to which Henry responded with a plea to help his friend. The priest told him to leave him overnight so they could investigate sources of the problem and possibly create an antidote. He was told to come back in the morning and to “Go with the grace of God.” Meanwhile, Varrick was questioned by the innkeeper if he was a lost little boy. When pressed for who would pay for the lodging of eight refugees, Varrick said that they would work if they could work out an arrangement. They agreed that for seven silver a night and two of them to protect his daughter, as he told them people were disappearing as of late, that they could lodge at the inn for the night. Henry and Varrick stood guard.

Elsewhere, Oculot, a resident of the village, was bored and wanted to get out of town; thus, he went to the inn to ask if any new people were in town. However, he had the complication that he could not enter unless invited, so he opened the door and stood there awkwardly, which caught the attention of Rai, another new person to the village trying to size up everyone he saw. Varrick was a three, Henry a five, and Oculot a whopping six out of ten. He was looking for a good fight and seeing who could give him that based on their attire and equipment. At this point the innkeeper yelled “If your gonna come in then do so already, don’t hold the door, its cold out.” Oculot saw this as an invitation and entered and approached Rai asking if he was new in town. Rai replied that he was and answered truthfully that he was in town because he was kicked out of the last towns he was visiting for barroom brawling. This displeased Oculot who backed off hurriedly and bumped into a yellow-cloaked, hooded man wearing a white, plaster mask with a yellow symbol around the eye. The man asked about a Varian and Oculot said he knew no such person so the cloaked man moved on. Oculot decided to press the innkeeper for information on the sudden influx of refugees and the innkeeper asked why he was so interested. To which Oculot replied “Just curious.” The innkeeper shrugged and responded that problems in Italy were causing refugees to head north. Oculot then asked for a drink and the innkeeper got insulted mentioning he was already 200 silver in debt with the blacksmith and as a kid got in trouble around town and that he himself kicked Oculot out for times of stealing. Even referred to an incident in which little Oculot stole a watermelon from Mr. Kringle and his repayment was not sincere as he was ordered to by the Law so it didn’t mean much from a convicted thief. He kicked him out of his inn saying no soliciting.
Oculot grudgingly left and started following the yellow-cloaked man who noticed him sneaking up on him. “You seem interested in me, why?” Oculot responded that he was curious why he was looking for this Varian. “Personal reasons, he slighted my master and I wish to ruin his reputation, drag his name through the mud.” He asked about Oculot and what motivated him. “Personal reasons like you, someone penalized me and I want vengeance, but like you to ruin him, nothing more, his name is Mortis.” The man made him an offer of an alliance, “Wanna team up with me – allies?” and held his hand out to seal the deal. Oculot agreed but not before asking if he can see beneath the mask to know the man he was working with. The man said no, his face was scarred badly in a fire and he prefers not to show it off, but said any information found should be reported to him at the Macbeth Inn.
Meanwhile, Suri was still recuperating from the loss of her friends and trying to keep the prison transport together at the same time. She talked with the Flamboyant Fire guy and became friendly with both him and the drivers. It was REGEN Man who she could not get to open up; instead he glared at her angrily. Their third day of travel found a hastily abandoned camp with footprints fleeing in all directions as if an ambush happened. They continued on and arrived in town where they attracted much attention.
Come morning, Henry Conrad went to the church to see if anything could be done for the second-in-command. “I am sorry but there was nothing I could do,” the priest replied “But go with God’s graces” and he blessed him. As Henry was walking back he found Suri had arrived and noticed also REGEN Man, the man who smashed him into a wall and tried to push him down a 1500 m pit. “Hello how have you been doing? I see you’ve collected him.” “Yes, he is a very unstable man,” replied Suri. At that moment, a yellow-cloaked man stepped up, “Might I trouble you for a moment I am looking for a man named Varian? I heard he was on an expedition heading this way. Please any help would be appreciated!!!” Henry Conrad told him what happened and that Varian had died at the hands of a former comrade, White Devil, who became possessed by an evil, intelligent sword of unimaginable power. He cautioned him if he went out. The man when asked why he sought Varian said that Varian stole from his master and he wished to retrieve the stolen item in question. He even offered to bury the body and give it a proper burial and honor him while he was out there. “Thank you, I shall head out that way, I am very capable myself should the Shadow man be around still and I have some help which I should retrieve now.” He bowed his head and left to approach Oculot who was looking on in awe at the prisoner escort. The man approached and asked if he would accompany him to which Oculot agreed.

They set out and two days by horseback arrived at the tomb to discover it had crumpled in on itself and no one was around. The man was eager with glee as he was really a servant of the Elder God Hastur and could feel his presence coming from within the tomb. He knew his master was free but had to search him out in the ruins. Oculot oblivious said they needed to discover a new entrance as the main was too dangerous to enter. “You’re a strong man aren’t you up for the challenge?” Oculot replied that he was but it would take them awhile and quite dangerous and said diggers would be awhile if they had any. The man agreed and they found another entrance that was much safer and entered. Since the magic’s of the tomb had been dispelled with the sword’s release, they had no trouble with the once trapped rooms and proceeded to the exit where the main battle had taken place and found the bodies of Galvin and Varian. “Here he is, hold on while I do something?” The man chanted, but was actually calling for his God, to which he arose from the rubble cloaked in yellow garments standing eight feet tall and looking more like a stick-figure then an actual man. Oculot sensed danger and drew his sword, and the man, scarecrow-like turned and stared at him with cold, loathsome eyes. “Will he do?” “Yes, my master, he will do just fine.” Hastur resurrected and summoned up Varian’s spirit from the underworld, and then using powerful dark magic’s purged Oculot from his body, forever destroying him, and tied Varian’s spirit to Oculot’s body which then took on the exact mind, spirit, and body of Varian replicating his features down to the last scar. Any evidence of Oculot disappeared after the ritual and thus Varian had been resurrected in complete likeness to his former self with one exception – he was now under the control of Hastur the Unspeakable and who knows what dark deeds Hastur has in mind for his new pet. However, lying at the feet of the newly-resurrected Varian was 4 recently-vacated crystals alongside his prized arm-gauntlet, which Varian quickly retrieved from his old body and equipped on his new arm. Not far off from Varian’s original body was Galvin’s decapitated body along with his gauntlet and 2 vacant crystals which were supposed to hold him and White Devil; but sadly, no other crystals were present and the knowledge of creating the crystals lost to existence. However, Galvin possessed that knowledge and it is a simple task to do with Galvin what had just been done with Varian, and together with Varian’s youth and Galvin’s knowledge combined an infinite amount of crystals could be produced and put to good use by Varian. They just needed a body for Galvin, whether willing or unwilling did not matter, and to perform the same ritual.

Jack Quickblade, a thief on the run from a job gone bad in which the son of the boss had died, decided he would probably be able to lose their trail in this serene lake town and was looking for the next big score. He himself was searching for a gem but for now decided that he was going to lay-low and see what jobs he could scrounge up. Earlier, Quickblade had run into a yellow-cloaked man asking for a Varian. He knew nothing about this Varian but asked the man if there was a reward for any information. The yellow-cloaked man said that it was within his power to handsomely reward Quickblade and should any information surface that he could be found at the Macbeth Inn. Quickblade went to the inn to settle in, when someone burst in and said that a prison escort caravan arrived in town and some hot babe was hiring out a job for protection. Quickblade decided he was there.
Oculot Jr. was wondering where his father, Oculot Sr. had gone and, he too, wanted to get out of this place; thus, the arrival of the caravan intrigued him and he decided to hang back from a distance and watch the caravan. He wanted to assess the situation from a distance and see what happened before deciding whether he should pack up and leave this town behind for adventure and freedom. He felt constrained here and, though worried for his father, was not too concerned as it was mere moments before that he saw him leave with a strange, yellow-cloaked man. He assumed that his father would return at some point, but Oculot Jr. decided that maybe he wanted to get out and not have to feel burdened with his father.

Cyril, a man constantly being hunted by a large number of people and trying to find a place to get his life straight, had discovered this little serene town in France and decided to hang out at the inn. While there, he heard the word a hot babe was out offering a protection gig. Seeing a chance, Cyril mind controlled the bar wench and implanted in her mind “Wish me a happy day and thank me for paying up front in full.” The bar wench complied and Cyril went to see what the commotion was all about. Arriving outside it looked like a circus. A plethora of people were either gathered around the so-called woman and others were watching from afar. He approached and heard the woman saying that she herself could not pay but at the end of the journey payments may be rendered. Another man with a rude attitude said “Oh, I can think of other ways you can repay me. But before that, how about you stay the night and indulge in the fine delicacies the town has to offer,” all while pointing down towards his crotch region. Cyril found this offensive but before he could do anything, the bystanders then noticed that Henry Conrad was carrying a man who looked 200 years past his prime and on his deathbed. The profane man asked if he was a prisoner what could he do to them for he looked harmless. Conrad explained he was the second-in-command of the Spellswords, which caught the attention of another average-looking man with scars over his face. The man introduced himself as Rai and said he would help protect the prisoners as he heard the Spellswords were tough customers and that the Dark Isles is rumored to have some pretty powerful foes. It was decided and the group came together to sleep on the wagons that night and everyone was introduced. Varrick the 9-year old refugee followed by seven other refugees, Oculot Jr. the pale man looking for his father, Jack Quickblade with nothing more to say, Cyril again with nothing more to say, Henry Conrad the man with red-eyes and guardian of Varrick, Suri the Arabic woman in charge of this prison transport, and finally, Rai the brawler looking for a good fight and a worthy challenger.

Later that night, the group was attacked by a Dark Mage Apprentice and twelve of their precious pets – Neo Renders. Their purpose was simple to retrieve their missing experimental human test subject – REGEN Man. However, the task proved too much for a simple Apprentice as he and his twelve Neo Renders were quickly put down by the newly-formed group. Quickblade doing the most damage downing the mage and more than half of the Neo-Renders. However, before the mage was downed he had succeeded in putting Varrick in a compromising situation by knocking him out near a Neo-Render. This is what prompted Quickblade to come over and engage both the mage and the one lone Neo-Render who separated from the pack to attack the defenseless child in the first place. A diamond-shaped insignia was found sewn on the mage’s robes which would bring up questions as to what it could mean and who this man could be. They did not know if they had seen the last of whatever it was this man may represent.

Today the party found themselves in a pickle. All the horses had fled and wagons burned and they were on foot. The second-in-command informed them that a second caravan was supposed to meet up with them along this path. So the party made the decision to walk forward. However, the next day the second-in-command was stricken with an unknown disease and his skin was pulled tight so you could see the bones beneath and he was struggling to breathe and slowly talking. White Devil saw a kid coming from the refugees looking to sneak a peek at the second-in-command and was caught and sent back. But it didn’t look good for the fearless veteran, Varian, the prison-guard, believed that the cause was from a poison and discerned a flower in the area which had a purple center instead of a yellow one. He further determined that an antidote could be found and it was made from a flower with a blue undercoating. So he sent White Devil out to search for this. White Devil spent one day discovering it and came back, Varian made the antidote and administrated it to him. The next day things didn’t change for the second-in-command, so White Devil was sent out again to search and this time he collected both the so-called poisonous flower and the antidote flower. White Devil had figured out Varian was the cause for his pain and torture and plotted to kill him and wanted to make a poison to use against him. Unbeknownst to him, the kid, Varrick, had shadowed him and watched him all day long do this task. More antidotes were made and administered. However, during the night on the first watch a pair of refugees approached White Devil and talked with him while secretly over in their camp they were escaping in groups. They were dissatisfied with the leadership and felt that it was using them as cattle to die in order to further their goals and sick of the mistreatment. During the night the remaining 100 refugees all succeeded in fleeing and marched straight through the night.

The next morning, the party discovered the refugees had fled and to their dismay that the second-in-command had gotten worse and had black rings under his eyes and looked even weaker. They decided that they were going to pursue the refugees, mainly, on the voiced complaints of both White Devil and Henry Conrad, the human/monster. Late into the afternoon, the group of refugees reached their destination; a tomb sitting atop a hill in an area clear of trees for at least 60 m. Varrick decided to investigate the tomb and discovered strange writing he could not read, so he investigated around the tomb for another entrance. Meanwhile, Varian stopped and thought they were being foolish and led on a merry goose-chase away from where the caravan was supposed to be meeting up with them. They were also slowed down by the second-in-command, who they jury-rigged his bed into a half-hammock on wheels so they could pull him along. White Devil pushed ahead ignoring him, while Varian and Henry Conrad argued over whether the refugees were worth saving or not. They decided it was and reached the tomb by nightfall but decided to set up camp and not wonder blindly in the dark. The next morning, Varrick, looked again and recognized a name, Odysseus; therefore, he asked if anyone could read it or knew of Greek history. He did this because the map changed from a location to runes saying “Pay tribute to the Gods!!!” When White Devil, Varian, and Henry Conrad approached the camp, they were stopped by the refugees saying turn back because they were not wanted there. White Devil and Henry Conrad asked why and that they treated them well, and the refugees pointed out Varian left half to die when they could have been saved and bullied and mistreated them. Varian did not deny it and said “So what, I don’t like you, you don’t like me, who cares, I want to know why your at this tomb?” The refugees told them to go back and they were not welcome, but they would take care of the second-in-command who stood up for them. White Devil said he would stay and refused an order by Varian. The refugees had no problem with this. Henry Conrad proceeded back while Varian sent “Be right back” and transformed into Trazio, his Pride demon form with invisibility and began scouting out the refugee camp. He then ran back to Conrad after transforming into Selena, the witch, and teleporting ahead of him to walk back in his original form. He wanted to go back for the second-in-command at least as he held the artifact which he explained could not be removed by him except by a spell cast by a mage at the Dark Isles. Meanwhile, it was determined a sheep was needed to sacrifice to the Greek Gods to open the tomb and so White Devil volunteered to look for one. After finding one, he came back and they performed the ritual to open the door and succeeded. They were met with a blast of musty, old, decaying air suggesting the tomb had remain undisturbed for years. After filing in they were in a pitch black room with fog surrounding the area making it difficult to see. All the refugees and Varrick and White Devil filed in and the door closed behind them.

By the time Varian and Henry Conrad reached the top, the door was closed; however, it opened on its own power and a voice was heard in their heads, “An exception has been made for you.” Once they entered, a voice was heard, “I am sorry but you all must remain here and you most likely came to your deaths for a powerful being is trapped within and I am its guardian. My powers have waned over time and this being has apparently reached beyond the boundaries of his tomb to trick you here. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do but if you reach me maybe you can kill time with me before your deaths; however, a series of traps and puzzles await you.” With that a room formed and torches lit up and two doors appeared before them. Varrick consulted the map which said, “Surpass the obstacles and beware the traps!!!” Before he could say anything, fifteen had opened the leftmost door and were trying to walk through but didn’t make it on account of traps. The refugees were ordered to stay back while Varian and Henry Conrad approached asking White Devil what was up with the kid. White Devil said he was a thief and could probably get them across the hall which spanned 64m and was supposedly full of trap at every turn and corner. The bodies were indication of this of the prior fifteen refugees. Varrick successfully got them across the hall disarming all the traps and told the refugees they were safe. Twenty opened the other door not thinking and got killed immediately, and Varrick amended his statement saying the left hall was clear.

The group now found themselves in a 20 m long and 20 m wide room with one door on the left-most end. Varrick tried to conceal the map while consulting it but Henry Conrad saw and questioned him. He was already suspicious as he saw him make gestures earlier. Varrick hid the map and said the earlier gestures were a twitch when he was nervous. The map had said “Find the needle in the haystack.” First, White Devil tried to pick the lock on the door but a click was heard and his lock picks was cut-in-half. Next, Varian said to lightning bolt the door to Henry who stepped up to do it. Everyone picked a corner and hid fearing the worst. Henry shot the lightning bolt and it reflected and shot back at him, knocking him unconscious and sending the rest of the party into a dying fit of laughter. Henry Conrad said “Screw you!!!” to both White Devil and Varian, but said “Your alright, your just a kid,” to Varrick. Varrick than loudly said “Find the needle in the haystack,” suggesting he was talking out loud but to pass along the hint found on the map without revealing it. After this escapade, they set to searching the room, tapping all the tiles looking for hidden compartments. It was White Devil who had the idea to look in the torches and on the tenth torch found it in the flames. They removed it and dumped it out and the key fit into the lock, but not after Varian taking the credit and spotlight from White Devil’s discovery.

The next room was another 20 m long, 20 m wide but had a waterfall with a pool of water near the entrance, 3 chests scattered throughout the room, a large stone statue near the door which was again in the leftmost corner of this room. White Devil threw the torch into the pool of water to make sure it wasn’t acidic, while Varrick went to inspect the large, stone statue. At his approach, the statue came to life and said, “What is this, just a kid,” in a monotone, gravelly-voice. “It is fleshy-folk,” as the others approached, and he replied “What brings you to place like this.” Varrick said they were trapped and the rock replied, “So your stuck like me, and like master.” White Devil had the key from the prior room and suggested they try it, but the stone man said, “That’s too big, look at the hole.” So White Devil went over to the keyhole and tried to insert the key and discovered it was three times too big. When Varrick asked what the chests in the room were for, the stone statue replied, “Part of the way to get the key,” which he responded to when White Devil asked what the water was for. After hearing this, before formulating a plan, White Devil grabbed a chest and jumped in with it into the pool of water and fell deeper and deeper in. Eventually, he hit bottom which teleported him back to the center of the room. When he arrived back, the stone statue perked up and said, “Trick to open it,” Here is a riddle, “Your trapped in a room with a waterfall, 3 chests, and no way out,” with that the door closed behind them. “Now how do you get out?” When asked what his role in all this is, he replied, “I am the guardian, I can neither help nor hinder you.” When pushed as to what he meant, he simply said, “I cannot help nor hinder you.” So White Devil threw the chest at him which exploded. The chest reformed in its original spot and the party opened a chest to find a chest-in-a-chest. Varrick decided to make it suggest that he found the map in a chest and did a sleight-of-hand to pull it out of a chest he opened and said “What’s this?” They did this till they were 8 deep and a tiny, un-open able chest. They decided to do this for all three and could not open the final chest. So they decided to submerge it in water and open it to the 8th deep chest, where they discovered they could open it and the first one contained a ring. They did this for all three chests and found three pieces to the key but no way to re-connect it. So White Devil threw it into the water before they could do anything and it appeared reformed in the center. They then went over and opened the door, to which the stone statue said, “Buh-bye now.” The refugees piled in with the rest and found themselves in a room pitch black with fog like prior. White Devil ran forward into the fog disappearing and met up with his shadow. The refugees all piled in and began wandering off while Varrick said stick together. Parties started breaking off to search for missing persons until Varian, Varrick, and Henry Conrad were alone with twenty refugees. Varrick consulted the map which simply said, “Face yourself!!!” Eventually, everyone was separated in the fog and came face-to-face with a shadow of themselves. Varian’s shadow turned into Trazio and snuck up behind, and Varian, not thinking turned into Kraven forgetting he could do nothing yet. The shadow soul-drained Varian so he responded by transforming into Selena and using his black rain attack to damage the shadow. The shadow drained him more and almost left Selena hanging by a limb, so he switched back to Kraven to increase his life but still could do nothing. He then switched over to Selena to do black rain again and destroyed the shadow. Meanwhile, Henry Conrad faced himself and started taking SAN damage from facing himself in a shadow form. They engaged in combat and the shadow drained some of Conrad’s life but Conrad destroyed the shadow with his sword. He then could see what was happening to the others along with a door and saw Varian destroy his shadow and Varrick become possessed by his. Speaking of Varrick, he chose not to fight his shadow and began invisible to avoid detection, then he cast an image a few meters away to confuse; however, the shadow mimicked both moves. Then they revealed and Varrick refused to fight, but the shadow didn’t and entangled poor Varrick. He then stepped over and drained Varrick’s body and possessed him taking dominance over his personality. Shadow Varrick marched the body over to the door and opened it and met up with White Devil.

The others came over and were greeted in another 20 m long, 20 m wide room with a large tomb in the center. A man in the shadows sat up and revealed himself to be Galvin, a prison-guard who’s duty it was to watch over and guard the evil entrapped in the tomb. He was too weak to trap the evil in a crystal and contain it himself until he could destroy it, so he opted to imprison it in a sword and place it in the tomb for centuries. He said that now another of his order has come forward that he should trap both himself and the evil and he could mentor his younger fellow. Varrick asked if he could do anything about the shadows, whom Galvin said were minions of the sword and he replied he could do a ritual to suppress it for a time. Varrick said he was possessed and while Shadow Varrick put up a fight they restrained him and took off his shirt and shoes so Galving could put ritualistic markings on his shoulders, feet, and head with paint to perform the ritual to suppress it. It was a success and Varrick retained his personality with some shadow features. At this point, the ritual began to seal Galvin and the sword when White Devil, having been possessed by a shadow version of himself and then later the sword, attempted several times to stealth but hit his head on the tomb until he succeeded. He then backstabbed Varian and left him bleeding and knocked behind Galvin. White Devil earlier had tried to concoct a poison from the planet but Varian had misdiagnosed the correct flower and so the poison failed. He then walked over and attacked again and activating a black flame-shield which dealt damage to anyone adjacent him. Galvin engaged and dealt a vicious blow and Henry tried to lightning bolt him to fail. Meanwhile, Varrick entangled him, but the black flames burned through it and White Devil stealthed and attacked and finished Varian. Galvin resurrected Varian as he needed him for the ritual and told them to keep White Devil busy as they could not kill him. All this while, White Devil’s skin and hair was melting off revealing his skull beneath. White Devil attacked Galvin dealing a vicious blow who retaliated with another vicious blow. Henry still could not get his lightning bolt to work while Varrick was sending swarms to attack White Devil. White Devil then went over and finished Varian again and Galvin could not resurrect him, so he told the party to flee while he attempted to subdue the monster. He englobed it in a barrier which White Devil tore through after the refugees alongside Varrik and Henry Conrad fled through a door which revealed itself to the outside world as a result of the demon’s release. The wards and barriers of the tomb had weakened revealing an escape route. Meanwhile, White Devil and Galvin engaged in combat to determine who would prevail, but Galvin had vastly weakened himself from the spell-casting and attempt to resurrect Varian so he could not operate at peak performance. White Devil stealth’s, vanishing before Galvin’s eyes, and all Galvin sees is the sword pierce through his chest dropping him to his knees. White Devil walks in front of him and decapitates Galvin after Galvin spat in his face saying “Do your worst demon!!!” White Devil kept the head as a trophy of the kill and now roams free, three personalities in one body. Before roaming however, he freed the evils which Varian carried, Kraven, Hastur, Selena, and Trazio and let them loose on the world.

Yes, they are, and so are the kids.  What's a cookout without the family?

Bill

Are spouses invited to the cook out?  Look forward to seeing you and Kim.

Allan

Just a reminder...no game this Saturday.  The next game will be September 4th guys....also remember the cookout at my house on the 5th.

Bill

This past day week was quite an eventful one for our little party of misfits, or half-party I should say as the group had split and weakened themselves by doing so. Earlier today the Samurai and the half-Djinn woman reported to the leader of the Spellswords shortly after stuffing REGEN Man’s chopped pieces down a well and recuperating from their wounds and mourning the loss of their fellow party member. The leader congratulated them on a job well done and asked if they had reconsidered his offer of joining the Spellswords. They both agreed to join as mercenaries. He informed them he had a job, rumor was around town that a big recruiting event for some unknown organization was going on in the very inn where they lost their fellow party member as well as defeated REGEN Man for the second time. They were informed this was an information gathering mission and that success rested on the successful capture of the two lead recruiters known as “The Magicians” for their unique abilities and skills. It was suspected they were part of an organization named the Illuminati and that these very people were recruiting to further their aims. Word on the Illuminati is that they are a secret organization which hides itself in the shadows collecting items of power and manipulating governments and leaders from the shadows. Their goals seem to be world domination, eternal youth, and absolute control of the economic system and they will do whatever is necessary to achieve these ends. While all this was going on the monkish fellow who holds a grudge against the Christian faith was in another part of town robbing a church to fill his own pockets. While out he heard rumor that the Illuminati was finally coming out of the shadows and revealing their existence to the world in order to make a power grab for something big, something powerful. He met up with the rest of the party and they exchanged information and agreed that they would go to the meet in two days. The samurai and half-Djinn woman ended up getting the password from the Spellswords and assured that they would have five of their own infiltrate the complex where the meeting was to be held. Deciding to scout out the situation early, the monk went early and during his initial scouting saw many villainous-looking men whisper into the ear of the bouncer and were led to a door which went downstairs. During the early arrivals, he noted a man with flaming orange-yellow hair slicked up in a wild fashion wearing all yellow and red garments enter. When he arrived downstairs at the bottom he noticed everyone was avoiding him and that he stuck out; yet he also noted intelligence and wisdom in his eyes. He decided to approach and learning there was a language barrier between them opted to speak Yiddish as that was the closest language they could speak and asked if he knew of the Illuminati and how he could get in touch with them. The flame-man told him that he did a job for them and they are a stingy, demanding lot who chipped him of the agreed upon pay and he would not recommend them as a group to go to. When pushed for information on what other organizations might be recruited, he said DRAGON might be another and rumor had it that the leader was an actual Dragon, despite the well-known fact that the last Dragon died over a thousand years ago. They apparently are searching for powerful artifacts but not much is known about them. Then there was a rumor that a new organization was emerging and that it consisted of some of the most powerful individuals to ever walk this Earth and that they were complete bad asses. Word is no one knows what they do, what their name is, or even its members. Having decided he got enough information, the monk waited for his friends who shortly arrived soon after. A little later a group of four guards stormed down, locked the door and guarded to prevent anyone’s escape, than one of these supposed two recruiters arrived on a balcony fifteen feet from the ground and announced that they are looking for talent and only the best-of-the-best were accepted but paid handsomely. To determine the best they would have a battle royale till only the best remained standing. Immediately the opening moves were made by, ironically familiar faces to the party, first a group of rogues they beat down the other day for trying to kill a town crier moved in and killed a man before he could react. Second, REGEN Man, who had been disguising himself with a sheet wrapped about him recognized them and bellowed “You, I remember you, you’re the people who left me to die 2 days ago in a well, you’re dead, DEAD!!!” He then rushed toward them. At this point the flame man self-immolated himself in flames and let loose a fireball right in front of REGEN Man clearing the rabble directly blocking his path from getting at his intended targets. The half-Djinn, liking this, man moved closer to enjoy his heat and let loose her own fireball on the thuggish rogues and killed them all putting an end to their reign of terror. The Samurai and the monk focused their energies on REGEN Man. Another man who  looked like the original, human REGEN Man and also killed their Ninja friend Nightmare and looted his corpse for the hide armor and Ninja-to, started approaching from the rear to attack the half-Djinn. At this point most of the rabble was cleared and REGEN Man, the demon, was downed by the samurai and monk consecutively. However, REGEN Man had feinted this fall and got up a round later to attack the samurai. He was again shot down and everyone seeing his twitching body focused on bombarding him with attacks. REGEN Man probably thought to walk away from this to claim vengeance again another day; however, his revenge was denied him as the flame man, trying to get closer, stepped up next to his body with his self-immolation still up to blast at the lead recruiter. As a result REGEN Man finally, finally died after several days of harassing the party and being a plague upon them. At this point, the half-Djinn being satisfied by this conclusion decided it was time to bust out and blasted at the four guards as the samurai was making for the exit and failed to do them any real damage but did catch one off guard. The furthest one moved forward and told them to cease fire, they were friendlies. At this point, the monk saw REGEN Man’s clone approaching and blasted him putting him down immediately. Throughout the fight, the flame-man lobbed fireballs and firebolts at people downing them instantly and demonstrating power. Expecting the battle to be done the monk feeling ignored by an earlier comment by the lead recruiter blasted the balcony in front of him and said “I will not be ignored.” The Samurai was inching toward the corner to approach a man looking like a mage who fumbled out his wand and botched casting a spell. He was immediately disarmed and left to head for the door. The lead recruiter smiled and stated there were still live people on the field who haven’t proved themselves and said kill them. Further, he pointed out that the men at the door were not his and were Spellswords, as he and his absent partner do not need small-fry help like them. He then began to flee. The monk followed and heard footsteps echoing the trench-coat lead recruiter. After chasing them down a small tunnel, he heard a metallic, almost inhuman voice say “We are being followed.” The lead recruiter instructed him to handle it as he can see invisible things, the second recruiter turned and revealed himself. He wore a mesh suit, with hard, armor plating of an unknown substance over the mesh. This armor was shiny, metallic, and reflective looking and was colored orange with a black lining. The helmet was sleek, pure black with orange neon-glowing eyes and the being did not look something of this world. The monk tried to plead with them that they had to hold up to their obligation and recruit them, but they disagreed and pointed out the Spellswords were at their front door and that they are hunted by them. Therefore, they said they were going forward and not going back, the monk let them go and informed the rest of the party of the situation.  They decided it was bad to follow them and told the Spellswords to get a map of the city through a bribe and see where it went out and try to mobilize a search as soon as possible. Meanwhile, they had the REGEN Man clone and the flame man in custody and planning to incarcerate and question them for information. When the samurai and half-Djinn finally got around to reporting to the leader he said that they got the information and that the tunnel in question was an old aqueduct system long forgotten and that it opened up to the slums part of town but they were long gone when a search was finally organized. The leader informed them that one day from today he was personally going to transport the prisoners to the Dark Isles to imprison them as they did not have the facilities to hold such high-powered men and that it took everything they had to suppress their powers as it were. He explained that the Dark Isles was home to Spellhold, a large prison meant to keep high-powered demons, monsters, and individuals locked up in depriving them of their powers. It’s rumored to even be able to hold Gods and Devils, yet the Dark Isles has a lot of black rumors surrounding it as well. Apparently anyone who goes there never comes back and it’s a one-way trip. However, it also has the reputation of possessing the most powerful magic artifacts and energies there; thus, it allures any seeking power to its shores. He told them to rest up and while the samurai and half-Djinn enjoyed a nice, cool and restful night, the monk was up to no good once again. He decided to rob a church again; however, this time he had the boon to stumble upon a private conversation between two conspirators of the Christian faith. Apparently they were arguing and one, a fat priest was telling the other that he was insane to be heading toward the Dark Isles and that the rumors are no one ever comes back from there. Each organization has lost men to it and the newest organization known for its unique members already lost four of their lieutenants to the Island. The other man responded that there was a great power hidden there he wanted for their lord, Satan and that it would help him re-solidify his power. The monk waited to see this man and when he emerged he was faced with a cold, scary man who wore a goat skull over his face, had a fabled Dragon tail perched over the cloak he wore which was black silk with purple lining. Under the cloth the man had two criss-crossing sashes each holding a total of 4 vials. The monk pursued this man and saw him coldly and cruelly kill a bunch of street thugs who gave him trouble assassin style by getting behind them and cutting their throats. He left the bodies there. At this point the monk shot him in the back. In response, the man calmly stood there and said in a deep, cold voice “I know not who you are but know this, this is but one of several bodies I possess and should you pursue the matter of killing this one body then you will be killing an innocent as well for I am controlling him. Do what you will with this information but should you decide to kill me here know that I will hunt you and that yet another innocent will have died for this naught. The decision is yours.” The monk decided he would take his chances after pondering whether it was a lie or not and blasted the man. The man stated “This is your decision, then another innocent is lost.” And he released the body to crumple to the ground, when the monk went to retrieve his belongings they turned to ash and the body of the man was indeed a commoner caught up in a meaningless conflict he knew nothing about. The monk went back to the church to confront the fat preacher and blasted the windows startling the priest. He told him to confess his heart to him trying to imitate the assassin he just met. The priest pleaded ignorance but when threatened spilled that a lost piece of lore detailing the Christian Faith’s religion was found there as well as a powerful artifact and that the assassin was going there to retrieve it for the Church. Displeased at hearing this, the monk killed the priest, looted the church, and set it on fire. Then he left hearing the voice in his head “Soon we shall meet on the battlefield, at the Dark Isles, look for me there and we’ll settle this.” The next morning the samurai and half-Djinn woke to the town crier telling the news of the day prior. Apparently, a church was burned down during the night, a mechanical shiny man was seen running throughout town, another town crier boy was found dead several alleys over in the slums, the graveyard district was desecrated and despoiled and as a result closed to the public since they discovered the bodies of yet another assistant and this time the grounds keeper himself, a city on the lake mysteriously was abandoned by its inhabitants like they all just got up and left suddenly, several key threats to the capital were caught the day prior, and finally, that an old woman in the government district was found dead in her attic with a cause of death being several axe slashes to her head and the suspects were apparently a group of individuals who recently were hired to work a job for her. Needless to say the samurai and half-Djinn decided it was best to set out on their next mission before they were questioned and went there to learn the leader himself was accompanying them. Meanwhile, the monk suspected foul play hearing that the Church was trying to obtain key documents detailing their history and went to steal the scroll from the archives to take with him to one day reveal the truth. He met up with the others and they set out for the Dark Isles with two covered wagons each housing a prisoner – REGEN Man’s clone and the flame man. The journey started off slow and by the third day, they had to stall due to rain. On the fifth day is when they encountered problems in the form of zombies which had appeared from the trees surrounding them. Deciding to stand and fight while telling the wagons to push forward they determined the zombies were not much of a threat and easy kills. However, after his third or fourth kill the Samurai sensed that the wagons might be getting too far ahead and were prey to what might be a trap with the zombies as a distraction; therefore, he disengaged from the battle and ran to keep up with the wagons. The half-Djinn was having terrible luck trying to kill the zombies and the leader waded into them slashing and bashing them to pieces with heavy, powerful swings. At this point the samurai’s hunch proved right as he was ambushed by a rag-tag group of surviving Banshee’s, the very same group which attack the other party members who went on ahead to protect a powerful artifact and transport it. These survivors were low on rations and decided to take the opportunity of the zombie attack to prey on this group seeing them as weaker and less organized then their opponents the day prior. They soon learned they were wrong, DEAD WRONG. The Samurai easily dispatched two and the monk who had wandered over took out one of the remaining two. However, they left the leader and half-Djinn to fend for themselves against the zombies and tragically, the leader suffered a bite from one of the zombies and instantly became one after being devoured by the group. Thus, a great man had fallen as the leader of the Spellswords is not a position to take lightly and only the strongest and wisest is chosen for this role. This was further demonstrated by the fact that he did not simply de-evolve into a normal zombie but instead evolved into one which not only retained his intelligence but also his special magical energies and sword fighting techniques. A rare occurrence indeed!!! The half-Djinn found herself alone faced with an advancing hoard, which she quickly eliminated, however, the leader still remained standing. With a shout, the leader threw his head back let out an ear-splitting scream with blood dripping from his eyes and throwing his arms painfully and twitchingly behind his back. He looked in agony and the veins on his body expanded mixing with the black crystal all Spellswords are known to ingest.  In fact, the black crystal ended up being less of a boon and more of a hindrance as it drained his life from him the more powerful the technique used just to further prove its instability. The Samurai deciding it wasn’t worth chasing the fleeing Banshee survivor started making his way back to see what was going. The monk decided to end the poor bastard’s life as he shot his beam at the fleeing Banshee’s prone back before making his way back over to see what was going on. They were greeted by a scene of insanity and despair as the stoic leader of the Spellswords had become a zombie himself and his veins were near to the point of bursting from the black crystal’s backlash against its user. The Samurai told everyone to run and half-stepped back toward the direction of the wagons. The half-Djinn decided it was good advice and took toward the wagons with instructions to jump on one and tell them to push forward and stop for nothing and the others would catch up. However, the monk, being stubborn, decided to try to take the leader by himself feeling he had the advantage of invisibility and flight. When the half-Djinn made it to the wagons she told them to go, go, go as she hopped on the back of the one with REGEN Man. Meanwhile, the leader started the combat by buffing himself up big time in preparation for the forthcoming battle. The monk let off the first shot saying he’d handle this and the Samurai should run. The samurai being honorable and one to never leave one behind countered by saying “No, you run” and proceeded forward to engage the monster in combat. By this time, the samurai and monk were going back-and-forth arguing to the other to go they would handle it and the leader had finished buffing and was preparing to initiate the battle with his own counteroffensive. He let loose a fireball which killed the salamander left behind by the half-Djinn to heal her comrades and stunned the Samurai doing a number on him. The monk blasted him only to be the target of the leader this time as the leader could sense invisible beings in the area and let loose a fireball blasting both him and the samurai. Stunning both, the monk was knocked completely out and bleeding profusely from this one attack and his unconscious body fell hard to the ground with a loud thud. The samurai on the other hand decided defense was better and began attempting to block the leader’s attempts to bite him. The samurai took a bite but was saved by a miracle from turning into a zombie himself and continued pushing the leader to his limits. However, misfortune was inevitable as moments before his death the leader tried once more to bite his victim and this time successfully turned the ill-fated samurai into a zombie. This series of events was further unfortunate for the monk lay meters away unconscious and unobvious to the events around him. The salamander tried to distract the newly zombie samurai and failed, and the monk soon after joined his fellow party member in zombie-hood. However, dissatisfied with this outcome, the half-Djinn had the salamander attempt to resurrect her comrades. As a result, since the two were not technically dead, only infected, she only succeeded in resurrecting their minds making them intelligent zombies instead of the mindless minions they would have become. This result is probably through a result of two strong magical forces interacting for resurrection is a powerful magic and combined with the strong magical energies passed along by the leader this is the end result – intelligent zombies. Though both were deprived the gift of life, they retained their intelligence and abilities as well as motivations and began their new immortal life and set out constantly bickering between one another “You should have run,” “No, you should have, I had the situation under control,” “What, you should have listened to me and ran, I could have handled them.” And thus, they shall spend eternity forever bickering on who should have run and who should have stayed. But one thing can be said for these individuals; they died valiantly and heroically protecting their fellow party-member as well as protecting the prisoners and accomplishing their goal for they can be reassured the half-Djinn did indeed catch up to the other party members and rejoin them.

After putting several hours between them and the zombie horde, the party decided to stop and gather themselves mentally and physically after witnessing such horrors as they had that morning. White Devil was worried that some of the refugees who had successfully escaped might have been scratched or bitten and went to investigate. He found that five of the remaining number had indeed suffered zombie bites or scratches yet they had not turned. This worried him as he didn’t want another incident so went to inform the prison-guard of the situation. The prison-guard, the man/monster, White Devil, and the second-in-command went over to assess the situation leaving the archer and other two Spellswords to guard the wagons, while they separated the five from the rest of the group with the intention of killing them right there. After confirming White Devil’s news, the prison-guard gave the order to kill them; however, the second-in-command protested saying that they would have seen signs of zombieism by now and he felt that they were not a threat. The prison-guard disagreed and was about to argue the point when White Devil noticed a blur of movement amongst the wagons. Apparently the hunters of White Devil had finally caught up to him and were trying to sneak in amongst the wagons; however, that failed so they were forced to engage. The prison-guard had seen one Banshee on the opposite side of the wagons approaching, so he rushed full-speed to meet him. One of the successful one’s who had hidden threw a shuriken at him and, upon contact with the prison-guard, a loud scream like that of a mythical Banshee was heard deafening and stunning the prison-guard in his tracks. Meanwhile, a third Banshee having gone unnoticed revealed his presence to throw an unknown object into a wagon close-by to the one they needed to protect. Before anyone else could react, the wagon exploded in a ball of fire which quickly spread to the surrounding wagons. A fourth Banshee also revealed himself to throw another one of these unknown objects into another wagon which happened to be right next to the wagon they needed to protect. The prison-guard suspecting these to be White Devil’s pursuers yelled at them “Isn’t he the one your after!!!” and with that charged the one he had been moving towards and dealt a vicious wound to him. As a result, that Banshee broke off trying to retreat. White Devil attacked one of the two in the middle of the wagons, while the archer added fuel to the fire, literally, as he shot off one of his fire arrows amongst the wagons. As a result, all of the wagons burned and the cargo had fallen out and was destroyed in the ensuing fire. In fact, all of the wagons burned down except for one and most or all of the horses fled wildly in various directions. By this point, the party had gotten the situation under control and killed all but one of the ninja outright. The one who had attempted to flee earlier successfully got away. It was at this point that the party was wondering why the two Spellswords and the second-in-command had not been protecting the cargo, when the two Spellswords turned to throw shuriken. Both were aimed at the prison-guard and one successfully hit knocking him unconscious with the same screaming noise as the earlier Banshee’s had thrown. Apparently before the mission the assigned Spellsword guards were killed and replaced by these Banshee imposters and they lucked out during the zombie encounter as the order to retreat was sounded as the moment the second-in-command ordered them to start up the barrier as they knew no magic whatsoever. However, they were good ventriloquists at pretending they knew magic as each morning they imitated similar motions and chanted similar incantations to give off the image that they were casting spells. It’s no wonder professionals such as these were able to fool a party of well-seasoned veterans and the second-in-command of the entire Spellsword’s organization. They had everyone fooled, but again, I digress back to the events which unfolded after the imposter’s revealed themselves. It was about this time that the man/monster, who during this entire fight was trying to protect the refugees, realized the second-in-command was right next to him and began to fear he was next. The second-in-command at this point made his move, but it wasn’t to attack the man-monster, instead he spanned and chopped off the head of one of the Banshee imposters screaming angrily as he did it. The last Banshee was put down by the prison-guard who had recovered and got up, and while he was bleeding out, the second-in-command put his hands together and began casting a spell. Everyone tensed up suspecting he was about to betray them and kill the prison-guard, but much to their relief they discovered he was casting a healing spell on the prison-guard. At this point the prison-guard, furious at White Devil, starts tearing into him ferociously about how his personal problems just lost them a lot of money and that he should not have allowed his personal problems to get mixed up in their business. The second-in-command informed them that the artifact had not been destroyed and that he, in fact, had been holding it this entire time on his person just in case this happened. However, he also berated White Devil on the situation and said this better not happen again or he would come to regret it. Having lost most or all of the horses and lost all the wagons, the five refugees seemed to have been forgotten and settled in back amongst their kin; meanwhile, the rest of the party decided to set up camp as they made no progress on their tenth day in on the journey. During the night, he approached the prison-guard and started talking to him about how he was aware that he carried with him four forms and then proceeded to describe them in great detail to prove it. The prison-guard said he didn’t know how the second-in-command knew but told him he likes to keep that secret. It was at this point that they heard a branch crack underfoot and discovered that White Devil had been sneaking up to listen in on their conversation. The second-in-command unhappy at this bound White Devil in a prison of fire, and at this point, the rest of the party was waking up and coming over to see what all the noise was about. The prison-guard began interrogating White Devil along with the second-in-command, while the archer and man/monster were investigating his equipment. They interrogated him about his pursuers and why they attack the caravan. White Devil spilled his guts and told them everything he knew. However, disappointed with his answers and lack of information the second-in-command hung him from a tree bound in the fiery-prison to stew in his thoughts throughout the night. The man/monster discovered a hidden compartment in White Devil’s Ninja-to with beef jerky and water. Angrily, the prison-guard snatched the beef jerky and ate it leaving to get some sleep. However, sleep was not to come, as the witch demanded that they kill White Devil for his incompetence and uselessness; disagreeing the prison-guard tried to push the voice out of his head. The Pride demon went as far as to call the prison-guard “a pussy,” as he agreed with the witch. However, it was Kraven, a yet-to-be-revealed form, which surprisingly offered up the best advice. He simply said to torture White Devil, and the prison-guard whole-heartedly agreed that this was the best answer. He quickly transformed into the Pride demon form and snuck off, so as not to wake or alert the others, and climbed the tree from which White Devil hung. All through the night, he simply touched White Devil making use of his body’s inability to touch other living life forms without draining the life out of them to torture him. He would touch and drain him until White Devil was about to collapse and then let him recover to repeat the process which he proceeded to do all night long along with repeating the words “Never Again,” over-and-over as a warning to him. Needless to say it was a bad night for White Devil as he never got a wink of sleep and was barraged physically and mentally by his invisible assailant. It couldn’t have done much to help his sanity. Heh, it’s a good thing these individuals can’t find it in themselves to work together, else our organization would have problems with them. But at this point they can’t hope to stop us. Now to see what the other half of this merry group of misfits is up too and how well they play nice with one another. These events told and followed by Prophet G.

Today the parties have split and the prison-guard, the Welsh archer, and the man who could transform into a demon decided to accept the Spellswords mercenary status and got their first job. They were tasked with a protection detail as they needed to ensure the safety of an artifact to the Dark Isles. They were given one day to prepare and told if they could find more help it would be appreciated. Having been unsuccessful at finding additional help for this venture, the group returned on the day the caravan was to depart and discovered that the second-in-command would be accompanying them with two Spellswords and another hired hand – an Italian ninja by the name of White Devil who hailed from somewhere deep in an uncharted mountain range of Italy. The second-in-command told them that he needed to take care of something first and he would catch up. He suggested they start their journey and informed them that out of the eight covered wagons accompanying them on this venture that the artifact was hidden in one to confuse any potential enemies. Furthermore, forty refugees were going along on this trip for two reason – one was to see that the refugees to safety as Rome, Italy had become a dangerous place to stay and these people wished to move elsewhere and the second was to further the potential of confusing enemies interested in this artifact as the refugees would make this expedition appear to be a simple refugee caravan setting out in search of a new home. The first six days of the journey were rather uneventful with other then the fact that the line of refugees increased and two more covered wagons joined the caravan. The seventh day saw rain so the caravan was stalled and could not move due to the weather so the party hunkered down with the other refugees. Meanwhile, the prison-guard seemed to be arguing with another of his forms in his head, the witch. She wanted to kill the refugees and wouldn’t back down from her captor’s desire for her to shut up. It was beginning to become overwhelming, but the prison-guard fought back the witch’s urges and engaged the two Spellsword’s in conversation as he noted they spent about forty-five minutes every morning casting spells. They told him it was their way of preparing their daily spells and allowed them to communicate universally with everyone despite the language barriers which existed. Further, it helped enhance their awareness of their surroundings so as to avoid any surprise attacks. The prison-guard talked to them about how they could sense invisible beings as he noted earlier they have always been aware of him even in his Pride form, which happened to be invisible. They told him that it is one of the spells they prepare in the morning and lasts for twenty-four hours, and it allows them to know if any surprise attacks are coming or if anybody is snooping around where they should not be. He further inquired about their black crystal as he was curious why they were always downing a vial a day. The Spellswords told him that the black crystal resulted from pollen from a rare black flower only found underground in Italy. They didn’t say where it could be found but told him that the Spellswords discovered a way to synthesize the pollen extracted from this flower into a dangerous and unstable drug which helps them greatly enhance their magical powers. They even said that a non-magical type could find themself developing magical powers as a result of this or that even fighters and rogues have found success with this substance having their talents greatly maximized and that some Spellswords were not even magically-talented at all yet still enjoyed success within the organization as a result of this drug for certain physical enhancements resulted. However, they acknowledged that a great risk comes with this boon and that sometimes the risk was far greater than the reward and recommended that if he was still interested in this black crystal to consider very carefully just how badly he wants the benefits. Meanwhile, in another part of the camp, the Italian ninja was practicing throwing shrunken to hone his skills and he threw one wide into the forest. Deciding not to retrieve it he proceeded back to camp only to have it fly out of the bushes and land at his feet with a note “We’ve found you!!!” The prison-guard having heard something being thrown began to question him as to what he was that. White Devil quickly hid the note before the prison-guard could notice and admitted to the fact that he was being hunted by a group of rogue ninja called Banshees. The prison-guard was not to pleased and inquired why he didn’t remove himself from this detail knowing he was being hunted because he felt these Banshee’s might accidently destroy the cargo trying to get at White Devil himself. He wasn’t happy but was quickly interrupted by the sound galloping hooves approaching. Not knowing which wagon had the artifact they quickly went out in the direction of where they heard the sound of hooves approaching from. Through the rain, they saw the shadow of a man atop his horse with his right hand extended in a “V” fashion. No one knew what to make of the situation until the man appeared in the light and to everyone’s relief it turned out to be the second-in-command catching up to the caravan bringing along two more covered wagons and a number of refugees bringing the total up to one-hundred. Having arrived the second-in-command told the prison-guard which wagon contained the artifact and in turn was told about White Devil’s little problem and that they might be harassed by them on the journey. Now knowing the location of the artifact, a defensive formation was developed. The Italian ninja was instructed to hide in the shadows at the back so he could unsuspectingly surprise any targets that got through the lines and amidst the carts. The two Spellswords made up the rear-defensive line guarding the last two to suggest that one of those two wagons contained the artifact while the rest of them guarded the front, where the actual wagon containing the artifact was placed. The second-in-command was to stick to the middle so as to throw suspicion of the first and it was the prison-guard’s hopes that the middle or rear would be attacked before the front. After the team set-up a plan they inquired to the second-in-command what their destination is like. The second-in-command told them mocking jokes about the Dark Isles and said that they have a massive fortress on the actual island defending against invaders and which surrounds the entire island itself protecting the cities and villages which have been established. But he mocked the island because despite its strong defenses the island is in a state of turmoil and chaos at all times and while they can defend from the outside they can’t protect the island from themselves. Infighting seems to be what’s destroying the islands day-to-day government functions and the running joke with the island is that they can’t even keep a king for a day. Assassinations are all too frequent and with no ruling leader to bring the rest of the nobility in line there exists no peace or stability on the island. Later that night the prison-guard found himself having another discussion with one of his multiple forms, this time the Pride demon could not stop bragging about how many women he’s had and went on to further describe how they always end up being one-time things because he has the un-luck to have a body which slowly destroys the cellular structure of other bodies he is in contact with and enough contact, like spending a night with him, results in complete destruction of the body. Minimal contact allows the cells to eventually regenerate themselves. But he kept the prison-guard up all night by going through the fact he’s had sixty-three known victims and only one of them was ever human. Since he couldn’t sleep the prison-guard found that the second-in-command was also awake and decided to bring up the topic of the black crystal again. He got the same explanation as he did from the other Spellswords with one exception; apparently the black crystal was highly addictive so much so that after just one dose the user is completely hooked. Furthermore, the user will never again be free of the stuff, or so it goes, because should he miss even one day the drug will have a backlash on the user and instead of strengthening their powers it will instead weaken them at a rapid pace. The end result is always death for the user. Death may not be emanate at first but will be ever closer each day that passes that the user does not utilize the drug again. Further, they need two to three times the dosage to offset the damage before they can resume their daily regime of one vial a day. Finally, this sudden increase in dosage cuts the user’s life in half each time something like this happens so that if death is not inevitable at that time, it is almost assuredly at a later date. By the tenth day the caravan now had one-hundred-seventy refugees with them and somehow the party found themselves surprised and surrounded by a large number of zombies. It all started when they heard a scream from the back of the pack amongst the refugees. When they rushed on scene they discovered walking, shambling corpses eating a refugee and more and more kept emerging from the trees to fall upon the helpless refugees. The archer shot several arrows at them to no effect while White Devil lay screaming at the wheels of the wagon in which he fell at after being scared while looking atop from it. The man/monster tried to push his way through the crowd to see what was going on but was being pushed back by the fleeing refugees. At this point, the refugees who were first bit began rising back up as zombies themselves adding to the hordes numbers. To make matters worse, group-after-group of zombies kept arriving on the scene probably drawn by the insatiable smell of human flesh about. Meanwhile, the prison-guard transformed into one of his forms, the psychopathic witch and cast several images of herself about so as to confuse the zombies and get them to attack non-human targets. The archer seeing his arrows fail decided to notch a fire arrow and shoot it off amongst the wagons, but luckily none of the wagons caught fire. While all this was going on the Spellswords and the second-in-command were attempting to create a barrier around the wagon with the artifact to ensure it didn’t get destroyed. At this point the prison-guard saw the situation as hopeless and told them to retreat and leave the refugees behind. As a result the refugees numbers were cut-in-half as 70 of them were left behind to die and later become zombies themselves.

I'm looking to kick a game off this Saturday at 4, if anyone wants to join in.

My name is Draegor Bladebane, and I write this in hopes that my knowledge may better the lives of others and help them survive long journeys. To get a handle on the situations I've been thrust into, you must get a hold of the team.

There's myself, a Monk and a scholar in my own right. You'll hear more of my own experiences later, like how Hydras are to be avoided at all costs.

There are two Half-Orc brothers whose names I never got, a human sorceror named Ryuuto and a gnome sorceress named Jilly Bean. One is a religious man, he cannot decide to call himself Priest, Shaman, Cleric, Spirit Chaser, you name it, he calls himself one. Quite possibly the most valuable asset on a team is a healer. He is greatly capable physically, as well as able to repair any physical damage sustained. We could test diseases and poisons, but it's a much better idea to avoid those situations entirely.

The other brother is a physical powerhouse, if he's not all that bright. Not much else to say about him.

The human sorceror is a twit. People of his ilk are frail at best and what does he do? Harms himself so he can cast a couple more spells.

The gnome needs to shut up. Good spellcasting, though.

PART ONE: In Which I Swim With A Hydra

I'd just left training with a friend of mine to wander some more when I come across a town with a Goblin problem. I ask around a bit I get pointed to some old man in a cave. Turns out he's kind of a popular guy, kind of a big deal. He had these four in tow, and it's definitely wise to go in a group, even though the brothers kept talking about eating my horse. I warned them their hands would be removed from their bodies, but it seemed to phase them very little. Here's a tip, if you're threatening someone, make sure their bicep isn't bigger than your head.

We travelled for a few hours, chatting idly. The area around the infested forest was rife with travellers, but they all had guides. Armed ones, at that.

Another good tip: Make sure you have a sleeping bag or bedroll. Ground is uncomfortable, as I would soon learn.

We ventured into the forest and shortly came across a bog. In the middle of this bog was a wagon on a small island. I was the only one to notice something living on top of it, so I dismounted and swam out to inspect. That was my first mistake. My second? Buying a sai instead fo a kukri.

Another good tip: Make sure there's nothing hostile in the water before jumping in.

Out of the water burst a six-headed Hydra, and by the Gods was this thing angry. And looking for a snack. It was about then I thought calmly to myself:

HOLYCRAP! HYDRA! I'MINTHEWATERWITHAHYDRA! RUNRUNRUN!

Now, apparently, my definition of RUNRUNRUN is swim like a pansy and get bitten by three of the beast's heads.

Another good tip: Don't go swimming with Hydras.

Thank god for the priest/cleric/what-have-you. Healing is, quite literally and metaphorically, a godsend.

Anyways, the moronic sorceror starts going all self-destructive on us to fire TWO beams of light instead of one. It didn't even seem to do all that much. Flippin' idiot.

The other one? Shot it with a ray that made it weaker. Thank you, Gnommish ingenuity, for making it not kill me.

So, the fighter and I set about our gruesome task as the Cleric summoned some odd water creatures. The fighter managed to lop off a head, and the cleric cauterized it. HA! Take that, Hydra! Not gonna be so cool when you scurry on home now, huh? Gonna be the laughingstock!

Before we could be happy, the five heads attacked. I managed to down one, but, thanks to my blunt instrument of war, it wasn't a slice we could do anything about.

That's when one of those piddly little water creatures kamikazed it and killed it.

I was so mad.