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Talutah

Talutah (a.k.a. Talu)

Talutah of the Ria tribe grew up in the Tire woods of the country Tal'ahm, on the Na Dhorn continent. She has a deep connection to the land and the many animals who dwell on the land. As a fierce defender of her tribe, her family and territory , she will courageously fight against those who wish to cause them any harm. She has high respect for the elders of her tribe and has turned to them in the past for wisdom and guidance.   Talutah and her tribe are worshippers of Skipan, God of the moon and dreams. Throughout her childhood the elders of the tribe would regal her with stories of Skipans many battles and of the Lupo's war with the Solen. Hearing these tales over the years, Talutah grew up with a mistrust for the Solen people.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Chaotic good
Age
30
Children
Gender
Female
Eyes
Brown/Hazel
Hair
Grey and white with streaks of brown

Oh how the mighty have fallen

Oyabun arranged for a small cermony to be held to celebrate the demise of the Triad and to honour the fallen. He introduced us . I'm not one to usually make speeches

Their day of reckoning has finally come

With our allies aid now guaranteed, we were ready to take down the Triad once and for all. Lucid, Zyanya, Mogg and the Black Skull pirates were going to meet the Triad at sea, to initiate trade of the dragon egg and keep a large amount of the Triad forces busy.   While that was happening Syrus and Saib, along with Saib's Solen buddies, would take out the guards at the Triad base. Once the guards were taken out Arthom would break into the base with the Gleam boys to rescue Yifeng. Ko Rava and I, with the help of the Yakuza and the Aurelian Elves Mafia, would fight the remaining Triad at the base. ____________________________________________________   Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I made my way to the Triad's base with Gallant, Ko Rava, the Yakuza and the Aurelian Elves. Cousin Vinny and the Yakuza Boss, who Ko Rava called Oyabun, were also with us. I felt it was a testament to their leadership that they were fighting with their people instead of staying in the safety of their own bases. Cousin Vinny was being his usual boisterous self which was such a contrast to Oyabun’s reserved demeanor. They seemed to have nothing in common, so I was surprised when Oyabun revealed his father was an Aurelian elf. He was related to Cousin Vinny through his father's side of the family. He gave me the impression that the came from pure Leishu heritage, it seems you can’t judge a book by its cover.   I stood at the front entrance of the Triad base with Ko Rava at my side and pondered the possibility of this battle going badly. If I was to die, I was grateful that I would at least die fighting beside a friend. I shared this sentiment with her and she responded that she was glad to be fighting her enemy with a friend. I appreciated her kind words and exclaimed that we would defeat any Triad that came at us.   The doors swung open and Triad members poured out of the building. With my bow and arrows, Gallants teeth and claws and Ko Rava's magic we defeated multiple Triad members. Oyabun's skill with the blade was impressive and he struck down Triad members with ease. At one point it looked like we were going to be overrun, but luckily some more Aurelian elves turned up and with our combined efforts we defeated every Triad member that came at us. Ko Rava, Gallant and I then ran into the base, but not before Oyabun told Ko Rava that he was proud of her. I am glad that she got to hear those words of encouragement from him.   __________________________________________________________   We found the rest of the Misfits inside and i was relieved that Yifeng was okay. Her mother was on our side this time and insisted that we stop Yifeng's Uncle Zao, now i had a name for him other than bastard. It was not long before we located Zao and i noticed he wore a mask over half of his face. Arthom used his magic to burn the mask of Zao's face before he had a chance to attack us, then Lucid threw a dagger into Zao's gut. I imbued an arrow with magic and nocked it into my bow, then i shot it into his chest hoping to restrain him with the thorny vines that started growing from the arrow. Unfortunatley this did not work and Zao ripped apart the vines before they could fully bind him. At least Syrus was able to wound him with some golden looking arrows.   Zao blasted a magical shockwave at us and most of us avoided it expect for Mogg and Arthom. Thank goodness Arthom was okay but Mogg got knocked out and was about fall on top of me. The last thing i expected was for Mogg's large form to cause a life-threatening situation for me. Luckily Gallant ran in front of me just in time and held back Mogg's body, then Lucid propped Mogg up into a sitting position with his shadow powers. Yifeng attempted to punch Zao in the face but the punch did not land. I was fearful he was going to seriously hurt her but thankfully Ko Rava and Zyanya stopped him with their magic before he had a chance to.   Our fight with Zao was going relatively well compared to the last time we faced him and then more Triad members charged into the room. Ko Rava was able to defend herself against a guy twice her size and sliced him in half with her sword. Lucid killed a number of them with a lethal combination of his daggers and shadow powers   I motioned to Gallant to attack the remaining Triad members but they quickly overwhelmed him and started hurting him. When I heard his yelps of pain it felt like an arrow to my heart and an overwhelming sense of rage started to build up inside me. The hurt I felt from my father’s disappointment plus memories of when I was bullied fuelled my rage even more.   I noticed that I had started glowing and then heard Skipan’s blessed voice say to me ‘Let them hear you’. I roared and intense beams of Lunar light shot out of my hands. I directed the beams at the Triad members hurting Gallant and they were blasted away. I then shot the beams at the nearby ceiling, causing the floor above to collapse onto a group of Triad running into the room. I howled to the sky in triumph and then glared at Zao and imitated a blade going across the throat, as an indication that his death was imminent.   More Triad reinforcements flooded into the room and seconds later music filled the air. For a moment it felt like time stood still as everyone in the room watched Zyanya and Zeno dance, until their dancing turned deadly killing multiple Triad members. Syrus killed the remaining Triad members with a barrage of golden arrows that he had summound. Zao grabbed Ko Rava and was about to blast her with his magic however Yifeng used her magic to throw a gust of wind at him and pushed him away from Ko Rava. Even though Yifeng’s strong winds were surrounding him it was not enough to keep him down, not even after Arthom's magic caused burning thorns to blow with the wind and give Zao multiple deep cuts.   Arthom was finally able to restrain Zao with thick vines that dragged him to the floor. I threw a Lunar bolt of magic at Zao adding to his multiple wounds and then Syrus landed the final blow on Zao. He placed his hands on the side of Zao's head and next minute Zao's flesh started burning till there was nothing but a blackened skull, there was no way Zao was coming back from that. Our mission was a success and the Triad's influence in Zyniii had finally come to an end.      

A selfless act during troubled times

The gleam boys were the first on our list of allies that we approached for help in defeating the Triad. We found them at their usual tavern in the Emerald district and spoke briefly with Rider about our plans for the Triad. She told us that the only way the Gleam Boys would help was if we could convince their leader Hard Tom to agree to help us.   We spoke to him about why it would be in his best interest for the Gleam Boys to aid us. We also reminded him that If the Triad took over Zyniii they would cause trouble for his Gleam Boys anyway, and it would benefit everyone if we took them down now before that happened. Unfortunately we were unable to convince him to help us and he was adamant that he did not want the Gleam boys to get involved with the Triad.   I was annoyed that Hard Tom was being so stubborn about the whole thing, and I was not the only one. Arthom must have telepathically said something nasty to Hard Tom, because he clutched his head and screamed at Arthom to stop. Then he punched Arthom and Arthom retaliated by using his magic to wrap vines around Hard Tom. I half expected a fight to break out in the tavern, but was surprised instead when Chatter held up Arthom’s arm, and announced that Arthom was the new leader of the Gleam boys. Arthom appeared to accept this and I could sense that he was prepared to lead the Gleam boys, at least for now. He did not order them to aid us and left the decision up to them, which I felt was a good start to his leadership. Luckily for us most of the Gleam Boys agreed to help us.   Our next stop took us to the Azurite district to visit the gang of Aurelian Elves that we knew through Chatter. Our conversation with the gang leader called Cousin Vinny was a breeze compared to the difficult discussion we had with Hard Tom. I got on well with Cousin Vinny and enjoyed our conversation. He did not hesitate to offer us the aid of his Aurelian elves when the time came for our battle with the Triad. Not only did he promise to help us but he even tried to persuade me to marry one of his cousins. Little did he know that since I had already run away from one marriage proposal, I had no intention of entering another. Hopefully I can stay in his good graces despite me not marrying his cousin.   _________________________________________________________________________________   Our final stop took us to the Yakuza headquarters in the Rose district. Thank goodnes we had Ko Rava with us, i doubt we would have made it through the front gates without her. We were granted an audience with the Yakuza boss and then Ko Rava brought forth our proposal to him. He appeared to be getting upset despite what Ko Rava was saying and then placed a sharp blade in front of Arthom. I could only just make out what the Yakua boss was saying and got the impression that he wanted Arthom to make some sort of blood sacrafice.   The situation then turned from bad to worse when Arthom handed the blade back and the Yakuza boss got offended by Arthom's actions. I could feel the tension building in the room and did not know how we would persuade the Yakuza boss to seek an alternative outcome. Ko Rava intervened and offered to take Arthom's punishment instead. She continued to argue with the Yakuza boss and he decided that in the end she would be exiled from her Yakuza family in Zyniii, once the Triad were taken down. She agreed to these terms and cut off the Yakuza patch on her robe which she then handed to the Yakuza boss.   I wonder if she felt like she was cutting off a piece of herself when she handed over that Yakuza patch. I could only imagine the amount of courage it must have taken for her to make that sacrifice and the sadness she must have been feeling after agreeing to these terms. I thought it was a very brave and selfless thing that she did to prevent Arthom from getting hurt.   She told us that she would meet us later that night because she still needed to say goodbye to her Yakuza family. Before we left her i let her know that she would always have a home with my tribe if she ever needed it. I think she appreciated my offer and i prayed that it offered her some comfort.      

An unlikely saviour

The Crystalline Fortress tavern looked better than before, funny how near death experiences can make you appreciate the little things. I was still alive, my fellow Misfits were still alive, and we had a green furred monkey to thank for that.   Looking at Nakah I realised I may have judged him too harshly initially. Granted he did make some blunders during the whole torn Leyline fiasco, and he did send a couple of us to another realm during it. But we all choose to walk through Nakah’s portal each time, no-one forced us to. Sure he may have some annoying quirks but overall he is a decent guy. Especially compared to the Victri and the various cults who go out of their way to cause harm to others.   Arthom has been unconscious since we arrived at the tavern and was getting some much needed medical attention. Thank goodness the beating he received did not kill him. We asked Nakah why he decided to find us after all this time , to which he replied that he wanted to have a party with his friends. Despite his cryptic answer, and the rest of us not exactly being in a party mood, I was grateful that he had saved us. I was surprised when Nakah teleported Kyra to join us along with Saib and his Solen buddies. I wondered when Nakah had met them , their first encounter with Nakah must have been interesting for them.   Zyanya and Zeno came to the tavern shortly after Nakah had transported the rest of us there and we filled them in on what had occured at the Triad headquarters. Mogg also joined us that night and i found it bizzare when Nakah referred to Mogg as his pet monster, Mogg did not seem to mind for some reason.   The riddle of where the duplicate Zeno (aka Z2) had come from was finally solved. It turns out that Nakah had been experimenting with alternate realities and had accidentally brought Z2 into our world. I was not surprised that Nakah had something to do with it and wished he would be more careful with his experiments. His tampering with the universe could have dire consequences even if done with good intentions.   I was glad that Nakah had remembered to teleport Gallant back with the rest of us, unfortunately he had left Yifeng and both the bodies of Gi and Ilyana at the Triad headquarters. I was concerned that the Triad would discard the bodies of Gi and Ilyana, I am sure that Arthom would wish to bring Ilyana’s body back to the Emerald Grove to be buried there, and Gi deserved a proper burial also. A wave of immense sadness washed over me at the thought that they were no longer with us.   I was also worried about Yifeng’s safety and the consequences she could be facing for going against the Triad. I was especially worried once Ko Rava revealed to me that the Mokuna bastard we had just fought was Yifeng’s uncle. Yifeng’s mother was able to protect Yifeng from her uncle this time, but there was no guarantee that she would be able stop him again.   After much discussion my fellow Misfits and i came up with a plan to lure the Triad away from their headquarters and take them out, we would also try to get Yifeng back at the same time. Our plan involved creating an illusion of the dragon egg that we had taken from Dabb a while back, and then we would use the decoy egg as bait to draw out the Triad. Ko Rava had been keeping this egg in a safe location since Dabb and would take Zyanya there to study the egg so she could create a perfect illusion.   I suggested to Ko Rava that she reach out to her Yakuza family to help us deal with the Triad. She seemed reluctant at first to the idea of involving her Yakuza family, but then agreed to reach out to them after we reminded her that the Triad would eventually start gang wars with the Yakuza. We also decided that we would reach out to our allies in Zyniii and ask for their help to aid us in taking down the Triad. Fingers crossed they would be willing to help us, considering how our last attempt went we need all the help we can get.  

We were in way over our heads

We questioned that schoolgirl’s Triad boyfriend and were able to get from him the address of the main Triad base, along with a rough layout of the place and the knowledge that Yifeng’s mother went to this base on a regular basis. Yifeng insisted that we let her deal with her mother once we got to base. She hoped that she could have a diplomatic conversation with her mother and persuade her mother to leave the Triad. She reassured us that if her mother threatened our lives in any way she would not hesitate to help us fight her mother. She must have felt conflicted, wanting to bring down the Triad but at the same time hoping to avoid harm to her mother.   Master Ilyana and GI decided to join us on this mission, i was suprised Zyanya and Mogg did not accompany us when we left for the base. We managed to sneak into the base without sounding an alarm and even evaded the guards. I made sure Gallant was quiet as we snuck around the base, it is comforting to know I can always rely on my trusty warhound to listen to me. We approached the entrance to the main meeting room and then Yifeng pushed open the doors.   Yifeng bumped into her mother as soon as we entered the room and then got into a heated discussion with her. They were speaking in what i assumed was the Mokuna’s native language, so i was unable to follow the conversation and was on edge while they spoke. I especially got worried when Yifeng’s mother mentioned the Yakuza and kept pointing to Ko Rava, the last thing we needed was for her to attack Ko Rava. All of a sudden Yifeng slapped her mother across the face. Her mother glared at her and then she slapped her palm against Yifeng’s chest which sent Yifeng flying across the room. I nocked an arrow in my bow and was prepared to shoot Yifeng’s mother if she decided to hurt us. She started to move towards Ko Rava but got then got distracted when a male Mokuna entered the room and grabbed Yifeng.   Ko Rava used this distraction to her advantage and shot magical bolts at the male Mokuna. He did not seemed fazed by this attack, and even though Syrus shot an arrow into his arm he still managed to catch Syrus’s second arrow mid air. Yifeng was able to get out of his grip by using her magic to shock him. I shot an arrow into his shoulder and motioned to Gallant to bite his arm. For a second It looked like Gallant had successfully restrained him but then he tapped Gallant with his other hand and Gallant fell to the floor twitching. Before i had a chance to retaliate he sent out a wave of force which knocked us to the ground.   He then attempted to stomp on Ko Rava’s head, thank goodness she was able to conjure a magical shield in time to avoid the attack. Yifeng managed to get up and then punched him in the gut. He was about to attack her back but then her mother kicked him multiple times. This guy was so strong because our attacks so far, including the one from Yifeng's mum, appeared to have barely wounded him. Even Ko Rava's poisioned orb did not have much of an effect on him.   The situation then took a turn for the worst when Master Ilyana tried to stop him attacking Arthom. This Mokuna bastard snapped her arm and then he beat her to death. I did not want to believe she was dead but the harsh reality of her mutilated face forced me to accept this horrible fact. Arthom flew into a rage upon seeing his mentor being killed. His tattoos glowed a bright green and a rancid smell filled the air. He slapped his hands together and used his magic to rot away half of the flesh on the Mokuna's face. I wanted this Mokuna bastard to suffer for what he did so i shot an arrow into the Mokuna's crotch, and then i used my divine magic to shoot some magical bolts at his crotch again, yet the bastard was still standing. It felt like no matter what we did the bastard would not stay down. Just when i thought it could not get any worse he kicked and punched Arthom so hard that i could not tell if Arthom was dead or alive. Then he attacked Ko Rava and probably would have killed her if it was not for GI stopping him. Unfortuantly the bastard managed to punch GI in the chest really hard and he must have used some form of magic because GI fell down and was dead.   Intense anger and grief were flowing through me as i looked around and saw what had happened to my friends. I got the horrible feeling that this was a fight we could not win. Suddenly a bunch of Triad members ran into the room and surrounded us. They restrained us and then held a knife againt our throats. As i felt the blade digging into my throat i was paralyzed with fear, and knew without a doubt there was no way we were getting out of this mess. I had hoped I would have more time to see the world of Mayhos before i died. Images of my family, my tribe and my home flashed through my mind and i was sad that i would not get the chance to say goodbye to them.   The blade started to move across my throat but then stopped abruptly and a purple portal appeared in front of us. I was beyond shocked when Nakah's head popped through the portal and thought that maybe i was hallucinating. Never in a million years would i have guessed that Nakah would be the one to appear in my last moments of life. He blurted out something, waved his hands and then pink runes appeared all over my body. Bright pink light filled my vision and then i blinked only to find that i was in the Crystalline Fortress. I was alive and back at the place where it had all began.  

Education in the big city

I used to think the knowledge I had gained throughout my upbringing would be enough to carry me through much of my life. Yet my recent adventures have shown me that there is a lot more knowledge out there for me to acquire. Growing up in the majestic lands of the Tire woods , my chances of getting a formal education were very slim. Be that as it may, I still learnt a lot growing up in those woods. My school was the forests of my homeland, and my teachers were the elders of my tribe.   Our investigation of the Triad took an academic turn when Ko Rava asked for our help in dealing with a problem at her former school. Her teacher Master Opah was worried that the Triad had infiltrated the school and wished for her to investigate this further, I was happy to help her and so were the others. We would disguise ourselves as students at the school which would give us the chance to look around the school grounds and talk to the other students to gain information. Master Opah must have assumed us misfits would get involved because he had uniforms for us to use along with fake student names for each of us, I rather liked my fake name which was Liu Ru. Zyanya’s illusion powers also helped for those of us who did not look young enough to be attending school. Arthom was made to look like Ko Rava's Leishu friend Mokoto, and i looked like very similar to Yifeng with the only difference being the colour of my hair. I did not understand why Zyanya decided to make Mogg look like Gurval, im sure she had her reasons though.   ______________________________________________   I was amazed by the grandeur of the school buildings and the exquisite grounds. Looking around I noticed that most of the students were Mokuna and I had yet to see any other Leishus. This observation prompted me to ask Ko Rava how she had gotten into this school in the past, she told me her admittance was due to her family heritage. I tried to get more information from her regarding this but all she said was that her family had connections and were important. This answer only made me more curious about where she came from, but I could see she did not want to talk about it further, so I let the matter drop.   The school day started with roll call and then we went to our first class for the day, Lore and War run by Master Afah. It was interesting to hear about the other major battles that had occurred in Mayhos. The only conflict I had known of was the one between my people and the Solen, and that was because it had been drummed into my head when i was young.   We finally got our chance to do some investigating when the class broke for recess. We made our way with the other students outside and then Ko Rava, Syrus and Yifeng approached a bunch of girls. I could see Ko Rava was glaring at the main girl of that group, I sensed from the look she gave that her past with this girl was not a good one. While the rest of the group was focused on this confrontation, Yifeng was sneakily going through that girls bag. From what I could tell she had found something of interest and managed to slip it in her pocket before the girl noticed.   It was not long before a bell sounded to indicate that recess was over. We headed to our next class, Chi and Spirit led by Master Natsu. It started off as a self-reflection class but then turned interesting once the sparring session started. When it came time for Arthom and me to spar, Arthom stood with his arms crossed and simply said no. My ego got the better of me and i got annoyed thinking he did think me enough of a fighter to even spar with, so i punched him in the face. Only my angle was off so the punch hurt me more than it hurt him. I gritted my teeth as pain shot through my hand and waited for him to retaliate. But he just glared at me while clenching his fist's, which in a way was much worse. Wanting to avoid further embarrassment I then tripped him, and once he was on the ground I quickly blurted out to him that I was sorry and only did it keep up appearances. He did not respond and just picked himself up off the floor. Mogg and Zyanya’s session was a bizarre one, Mogg punched himself in the face and Zyanya tried to pull his pants off. Before the class had ended I noticed a pouch of berries had been placed in my hand, but I did not see who put them there, maybe Arthom forgave me after all.   When we had our next recess break Yifeng gathered us together and told us about the envelope she had found in the girls bag, which had the Triad Lotus flower symbol stamped on the front of it. At Mogg's suggestion we went to Master Opah, who then brought the girl to an empty classroom. We questioned her and she admitted that she was seeing someone from the Triad who was much older than her. He was basically grooming her promising her fame and fortune, who knows how many more students had fallen under his spell. Master Opah had been right to fear the Triad’s influence and told us he would deal with the girl. Our concern now was her Triad boyfriend, during our questioning she had mentioned that he would come by the school every afternoon. We decided that we would capture him the next time he came to the school and interrogate him to get further information about the Triad’s movements.   Overall my experience of attending a fancy city school turned out pretty good in the end.  

A night of drinking and maiming

I sat with my misfits in one of the many Zyniii taverns enjoying a well deserved drink. I had spent ages washing that sewer waste off me but i still did not feel completely clean. The Lupo prisoner, who had informed us that his name was Ocumwhowurst, had come along to the tavern with us. I could not help but notice how handsome he was and was hoping i would get the chance to form a more intimate bond with him. Plus it could not hurt my chances if i offered to show him around Zyniii since he had spent most of his time here in a cage.   He briefly told us about the horrible things he had endured as the Triad's prisoner, I was sad to hear how much he had suffered. Occasionally he would refer to the Skye father during conversation. The name sounded vaguely familar but i could not recall any details. I was familar with the name of his tribe however and remembered that they dwelled not too far from my tribe's lands. Arthom seemed to know who the Skye father was and reminded me that this was a god, who is a giant eyeball in the sky. Now that would be a startling thing to see in the night sky amongst the stars.   I spoke with Ocumwhowurst briefly about our homeland, it felt nice to reminisce about my country with a fellow Lupo. I asked him what he missed about our homeland and he answered that he missed his tribe's sacred tree and his parents. I thought about my family and how much i missed them. I prayed that my family missed me too and would be happy to see me when i eventually returned home.   Arthom's master Illayana turned up at the tavern that night which was a nice surprise. Apparantly she had been looking for Arthom and had run into the Gleam boys who helped her locate us. It turned out Arthom's accidental shape-shift at Prince's Liuni's gathering was actually a curse, and she was here to help him get rid of it. I would not be surprised if Saib's attack had something to do with it, Arthom made sure to let his feelings of Saib be known to Master Illayana. Fingers crossed this problem does not turn into a major headache for Arthom.   I bought Ocumwhowurst a firewhiskey in the hopes that we would continue to converse and get to know eachother better. I had managed to have a brief conversation with him but i found that i was more tongue tied then usual. My idea backfired however, he had a bad reaction to the drink which caused him to run out screaming and set fire to a tree outside from the flames caused by the drink. My first experience with that drink was not exactly smooth but i dont remember it being that bad. The majority of us ran out to help him and Ko Rava used her magic to douse the fire. I was worried this had left him with a bad impression of me, surely i would find a way to improve my chances with him.   _________________________________________________________   We were then attacked by members of the Triad and defeated them. With my bow and arrows i was able to shatter both kneecaps of one of those Triad bastards and Syrus dispatched another by shooting an arrow into it's eye. Zyanya engulfed one in scorching flames whilst Ko Rava drew runes in the air with her sword, which caused one Triad member to claw itself to death. Gosh what images did she conjure in that Mokuna's mind to make it maim itself like that.   I also got to see first hand why Master Illyana was Arthoms mentor, she shape-shifted her hand into a massive animal paw and tore open a Triad's throat using her razor sharp claws. Ocumwhowurst got his revenge on a Triad gang member by slashing at it with his claws, and then used a form of magic to cause the smoking stump of the burnt tree to fly through the window and slam the Triad member against the wall.   Once we finished dealing with the Triad members we got back to our drinks and continued to chat, all thing considered it was a good night.

Well that was a shitty situation we got ourselves into

We have not seen Gurval since his bombshell of a revelation, hopefuily he is okay. The fact there was something, or someone making him feel that we would need to kill him was very concerning. Whatever the reason was it can't be good, if we got the chance to ask him would he tell us, or we would we end up finding out the hard way?   We had gotten a message from Saib to meet him at his hideout in the moonstone district. It was probably a good thing Arthom had not come along, Syrus had just mentioned that Saib was behind the attack on Arthom. I felt Saib's actions were a bit extreme, sure Arthom had been mean to him in the past but that was no excuse for him to harm Arthom. I also wondered if Syrus was annoyed that Saib had gone behind his back and attacked Arthom, maybe he even felt betrayed.   We entered Saib's hideout and were bombarded with the smell of incense and spices. Saib was lounging on a bunch of cushions and was surrounded by Solen. He looked more confident and sure of himself compared to the last time i saw him. He showed us a scroll which contained the layout of a Triad outpost in Zyniii, he said showing us this intel was an olive branch, and he hoped we could move on from past issues. He better pray that Arthom saw it that way, there was no guarantee that Arthom would not want to get his revenge on Saib.   Syrus asked Saib why he thought we would want to go this outpost, to which Saib replied that important figures from the Triad would be there, and there was a mysterious red room that was rumored to hold something valuble. The outpost could also give us the chance to find out exactly what the Traid were planning for Zyniii. He gestured to the black feathered Solen next to him and said that Kaito could provide us with Triad uniforms. Syrus knew Saib better than the rest of us and it looked like he trusted what Saib was saying, which was enough for me. We discussed the pros and cons of breaking into the outpost and decided in the end that we would check it out.   _____________________________________________________________________________________________________   Syrus and Ko Rava planned to break into the outpost through the rooftop entrance. Zyanya and Yifeng dressed in the Triad uniforms would enter right through the front door, with Zyanya's illusion powers disgusing their faces. Lucid and i had decided to break into the outpost via the back alley sewer entrance.   The overwhelming stench of the sewer filled my nostrils and i struggled not to spew from it. We turned a corner and saw a large portly Nusaru dancing, and then once he was done he just sat down and began to meditate. At first i just stared at him dumbfounded, the last thing i expected to find in this sewer was a dancing Nusaru. Lucid and i approached the Nusaru and after chatting wih him we found out his name was Mogg, and that he was in the sewer cause he was lost. He had a very laid back demenour about him and somehow knew our names before we even mentioned them. When we questioned him on how he knew, he simply answered that Alpha had told him. i could not help but think that there was more to this Nusaru then meets the eye.   We offered for him to join us which he accepted. We had been walking for what felt like half an hour but we still had not found an exit into the outpost. Mogg then said he would ask Alpha for directions, did this frog actually talk to Alpha or was he confusing his inner voice for a god? We let Mogg lead the way for a bit since we were not getting anywhere ourselves. The stench of the sewer was really getting on my nerves and then i slipped and fell getting sewage all over me, the last thing i wanted to hear was Mogg's calm voice saying Alpha will provide.   I don't know what Mogg did but one minute he was walking over some pipes and the next minute a wave of sewage came crashing towards us and began to carry us away. It took all my energy to stay aloat, whenever i had thought about how i wanted to die, drowning in a river of shit was not on the list. Mogg on the other hand was not phased by this sudden onslaught of shitty water and floated on his back. He grabbed Lucid and i and then placed us on his stomach, i clung onto that large round belly as though it was a life raft. The force of this shitty wave was so strong that seconds later it broke through a wall into a meeting room of sorts. Chaos ensued as the Mokuna in the room struggled to stay aflot, Mogg grabbed Ko Rava out of the stinky water and placed her on his belly. She looked at Lucid and i in shock and we quickly explained what was going on. Syrus was able to avoid this river of shit thanks to his wings, Yifeng and Zyanya also avoided it courtsey of Yifeng's floating cloud.   As the river of sewage flowed from the meeting room to the rest of the outpost the levels dropped and we were able to get our footing again. Outside of the meeting room a few doors down, we noticed a red glow was coming from a door, this seemed likely to be the red room that Saib had told us about. As soon as we entered the room we started to feel hazy and there were bright red crystals all around the room. Mogg mentioned that the crystals themselves were making us high so we went about destroying them. We were then suprised to find cages at the back of the room filled with people from various backgrounds including a Lupo. There was even a small Rojikan child chained to the wall and she looked very weak. We went about freeing the prisoners and Syrus and i used our magic to heal the Rojikan child.   Luckily the Triad were so focused on getting the river of sewage under control that we were able to escape with the prisoners. Before the wave had crashed through the meeting room Yifeng and Zyanya were able to hear the Triad's plans for Zyniii, which involved taking over Zyniii making the Triad the ruling power of Zyniii. I had also asked the Lupo how he had become their prisoner and he told me that the Traid had come to his home by boat and had stolen him from his tribe. Upon hearing this i concluded that the Triad had sailed as far as my homeland to steal the Lupo, and based on the other prisoners it seemed they had captured people from other lands in Mayhos. I was appalled by their actions and the pain they had caused these people by ripping them away from their homes. The Triad needed to be stopped, this evil could not continue.

What the fuck did he just say?

Needing a change of scene from the usual Zyniii taverns, I decided to head over to the bar in Prince Liuni's garrison. The bar had a relaxing atmosphere and they had no issues with Gallant being there which contributed to my high praise of the place. Looking around i noticed some of my fellow misfits were also at the Garrison bar. Zyanya looked like she was immensly enjoying Saadiah's company and Gurval appeared to be having an enjoyable chat with the Mokakuna Gi. Zeno and Z2 were busy praising eachother in the corner of the room, gosh imagine if they ever got intimate with eachother, now that would be taking 'getting to know yourself' to a whole other level.   Gi walked over to me and pulled out a chart listing alcoholic beverages with a bunch of names listed next to them, there was a big X next to Gurval's name. He found it strange that Gurval was drinking wine and wanted my opinion on the matter. I could not recall Gurval having a bad reaction the last time he drank wine, so i figured it should be fine. Lucid had joined us during this discussion but left once Gi started mentioning the various names Gurval had for Lucid such as Corpse walker etc, i can imagine hearing those names all the time would be annoying.   I ordered a much needed drink and then ambled over to Gurval to ask how the wine was, i was curious to see if he would divulge his reasons for partaking in an an alocholic beverage instead of his usual milk. He did not say much though, GI came over and the conversation steered away from Gurval's drinking habits, by this stage Arthom, Syrus and Ko Rava had turned up at the bar.   Yifeng then entered the bar with Lucid and Gurval called over to Yifeng asking her to bring over her friend. I was not sure i heard correctly at first, since when did Gurval refer to Lucid as a friend. Arthom found it strange that Gurval was being nice to Lucid and i also thought the same. What was more bizzare is that Gurval was acting like he did not know who Lucid was, true he had not called Lucid by his name for a while but he knew him at least. Just when i thougnt it could not get more confusing Gurval then called Lucid a Savali, i had never heard him use that term before. I was starting to get concerned that there was something wrong with Gurval and looking at my fellow misfits i could tell they also shared my concerns.   Ko Rava began to ask Gurval various questions to try and get to the bottom of his changed demeanour, but he kept giving her cryptic answers and was more concise than usual in his speech. She thought maybe he was possesed, considering how weird he was acting i thought that was a fair assumption. She asked Gurval if he was someone else but he simply answered no and said he was still Gurval. I could tell she was still skeptical but this questioning was leading nowhere so she stated to him that she would continue to keep an eye on him.   Gurval was on a roll tonight, a few minutes later he slammed his hand on the table, looked at us and then asked why were helping Prince Liuni with the cults. We all gave our reasons and i expressed that we had to stop the cults because they threatened the peace in Mayhos. During this discussion Gurval had the nerve to say that i did not know suffering, he had lost friends and family while i had only suffered a failed marriage. Arthom came to my defence which was nice but what Gurval had said really got under my skin.   It felt like he was saying that only those who had truly suffered had a justification for fighting. Just because i had a fairly easy upbringing should not mean that i am denied the right to fight for what i belleive in and care about. I still cared about the little person, the innocent person trying to live a happy life and would fight to protect them. I may not have endured immense suffering but i would gladly do whatever was needed to stop endless pain and death for others, to stop the evil spreading to my homeland. These cults had wished to cause harm and i had no qualms helping prince Liuni if it meant stopping them. I may have left home initally seeking adventure but now i am prepared to do what is needed to stop the spread of evil across the lands of Mayhos, even if those lands are not my homeland.   I expressed this to Gurval and after we had given our reasons for helping prince Liuni he seemed satisfied with our answers. Minutes passed and Gurval looked pensive. He told us that he needed us to live, Arthom asked him why he needed us and then he whispered something in Arthoms ear. Before any of us had a chance to inquire further Gurval used his magic and teleported away. We immediately asked Arthom what Gurval had whispered to him. Arthom responded that Gurval had whispered he was keeping us here to kill him.   I chill ran down my spine and we all sat there in silence contemplating what Gurval had just reveled to Arthom.    

Hitting them where it hurts

I was glad that Prince Liuni's gathering had not ended in bloodshed, it was a nice change compared to the previous party i went to. I had briefly spoken with prince Liuni and let him know that i would help him with his cause in defeating the cults. I also made it clear to him that i had promised my friends i would help them with their problems and would not leave Zyniii until i had done so.   He had reached out to us since the gathering and asked for our assistance in attacking the Enceladus, Morvor, Prima and Edo'ghan cult outposts situated throughout Zyniii. We met up with him at his garrison in the Rose district and were also joined by Lady Saadiah. Together we came up with a plan of attack that involved us splitting into groups and each group would attack an outpost. The Gleam boys were also going to help us and were willing to lend us their gleam pods for the attack.   The duplicate Zeno was somewhere in the vincinty and luckily for us he had no ill intentions towards us. Syrus beleived the duplicate Zeno, or Z2 as i liked to call him, was a shape-shifter. It struck me how prince Liuni was not fazed by the fact that we had a shape-shifter in our mist and did not immediately investigate why Z2 was there in the first place. I get that he was focused on the cults but you would think he would want to make sure that Z2 was not going to cause any trouble. Also the others did not seemed fazed by Z2's prescence, especially Zyanaya and the original Zeno. Maybe Zyanaya liked having an extra Zeno to play with.   __________________________________________________________________________________________________________   I chose to attack the Prima outpost and was accompanied by Arthom, Prince Liuni and Whisper from the Gleam Boys gang. I opted out of using one of the gleam pods and hitched a ride on the back of Gallant, it was handy having a large warhound for a companion. We headed towards the coast of Zyniii where the outpost was situated, meanwhile Whisper went to meet up with a gang of Aurelian elves hoping to acquire their aid. As we were making our way towards the outpost a tidal wave began to form and headed straight for us. Fortunately Gallant was able to sense the tidal wave's approach and began to outrun it, thank goodness for my trusty sidekick. I looked back and was terrified to see that Arthom and Prince Liuni was about to be engulfed by the wave. Thankfully Prince Liuni was able to jump out of the gleam pod and in a impressive display of magic slammed his sword into the ground which appeared to split the wave down the middle avoiding us altogether.   We eventually arrived at the outpost and then Whisper turned up with the gang of Aurelian elves. The Aurelian elves started running towards the outpost but some of them got taken down by a bunch of tentactes that had shot out of the ground. Fuck these cultists, first they try to drown us with a tidal wave and then they throw tentacles at us. We forced our way into the outpost and made those cultists pay for trying to kill us. Gallant and i were a superb duo, whilst perched on Gallant's back I loosed a bunch of arrows at the cultists with my bow and Gallant mauled any other cult members that came at us. Meanwhile Arthom had shape-shifted his hands into warhound paws with sharp claws, and tore into multiple cult members with those massive claws as he fought back-to-back with Whisper, while Prince Liuni also struck down cult members. There was a not a cult member left standing by the time were through with them. We also decided to do some damage to the Triad's reputation by way of Arthom drawing their Lotus flower symbol in blood on the wall. Let the cults think they were responsible for the attack, and If we were lucky they would fight eachother, which would make it easier for us when we helped Ko take down the Triad.   After our bloody rampage was done and the Prima outpost was in ruins we met up with the rest of the misfits at a tavern. They had also been successful in their mission and i was glad that we had done some serious damage to the cults in Zyniii. As i listened to my fellow misfitts recount the details of their mission a feeling of doubt suddenly came upon me. I could not help but wonder if my friends were proud of how i fought tonight, or would they always see me as the inept wolf who needed saving regardless of how well i did. They did not think twice about commenting on my past failures, it would be nice to hear them say something positive for once instead.    

Seeing double

That Prince Liuni was one resourceful guy, i had just received a letter from him despite the fact that i had no permanent address in Zyniii. His letter detailed the threat the cults posed and the importance of the gods in Mayhos. He also stated that he was impressed with my coordination and effectiveness when my companions and I stopped the Morvor cultist that had killed Lucid's father. He wished for me to join his cause in defeating the cults and believed we could be allies. An address in the Rose ditrict of Zyniii was listed at the bottom of the letter in order for us to meet to discuss his proposal further. I was pleased that he saw me as an effective warrior worthy of joining his ranks and was thankful he wanted my help with stopping the various cults. I pondered over what the prince was asking and decided that i would go to meet him. When i got there Arthom had just arrrived and i was alarmed to find he had an arrow embedded in his shoulder. I asked him what happened and he told me someone had attacked him from the sky, regrettably he did not know for certain who had shot the arrow at him. Geez the last thing we needed was another enemy to deal with. He yanked the arrow out of his shoulder without a second thought and then threw it to the ground. I expectd he would use his magic to patch up the wound but then the doors to the front entrance opened, and a couple of Aurelian elves in fancy suits walked out asking us what we were doing there. Arthom showed them a letter from the prince and i also showed them my letter which was enough to get us both into the building.   _______________________________________________________________________________________________________   The were lots of people inside which made me think we were not the only ones Prince Liuni had invited to this gathering. Arthom started chatting with a group of Aurelian elves and then a female Aurelian elf joined us. One minute Arthom was speaking with her and the next minute he was swaying on the spot, he looked like he was about to pass out. I got a sinking feeling that the arrowhead which had struck him was tipped with a harmful substance. She noted Arthom's change of condition and offered to bring him upstairs to heal him using Cicero's water powers. I was weary of this stranger, for all i knew she could make the situation worse for Arthom. She assured me she was a servent of prince Liuni, that he had told her all about us misfits and to expect our presence tonight. She said i was welcome to come with her, to which i agreed. Arthom passed out once we got him upstairs and then she started healing him.   She was able to cure him although he was still slipping in and out of consciousness. Minutes passed by and then Lucid, Syrus and Gurval walked through the door. I filled them in on what had happened to Arthom and then he started to shift into another form. I was surprised to find he had turned into an average sized bird with long legs and a really long black beak. Dont get me wrong, i know being able to wildshape into another form is impressive in itself, but compared to his other forms this one looked pretty basic. It must have been a surprise to Arthom too because he started flapping his wings wildly and kept trying to get out of the room, I motioned to Gallant to block the doorway.   In amongst the chaos Lucid inquired where the arrow was, i replied that it must still be on the ground out the front. Lucid left the room to go find the arrow and then Arthom started attacking Syrus. Gurval and i attempted to grab Arthom but he managed to evade us and dodged out of our way. Eventually Syrus kicked him through the balcony doors which was enough to shock Arthom out of the bird form and shift back into his Dwarven self , however he was completley naked. I grabbed Arthom's kilt and threw it at him but not before i had inadvertently glimpsed Arthom's manhood on full display, now there is an image that will be hard to forget.   Ko Rava walked in asking about Arthom and i let her know Arthom was okay. I then headed downstairs with Ko Rava and helped her look for Prince Liuni's sister Lady Saadiah amongst the crowd. Ko Rava briefly explained that Saadiah had ruled a kingdom near Diomeda, had then abdicated her throne to her son and become a general during the orignal war with the titans. When she heard Diomoeda had fallen she came to Liuni's aid. In our attempts to locate Saadiah we glimpsed Zeno on the side trying to hump a pillar that he was strapped to, talk about bizzare. Zyanya found us and joined in our search for Saadiah, i was half expecting her to talk about Zeno's new found love for pillars but she did not bring it up.   We found Saadiah at the bar and then introduced ourselves. She offered us drinks and by this stage Gurval, Arthom and prince Liuni had joined us. It was not long before a large, muscular monkey approached us to chat with Gurval. Upon seeing this monkey Ko Rava tensed up and hid behind me. I looked back at her in confusion and was about to ask why she was avoiding the monkey but she said she would explain later. I trused she had her reason so i helped to keep her out of the large monkey's sight. Her efforts were in vain however because shortly after Gurval picked her up and placed her on his shoulders, luckily the large monkey did not seem to recognise her. Zeno eventually came to join us and i could not help but jokingly ask him if he was tired, but he looked puzzled by my comment and did not know what i was talking about. A few seconds later Zyanya grabbed Zeno by the arm and walked away from the bar heading towards the other side of the room. Saadiah and myself went with them and then we found ourselves face to face with Syrus, Lucid and unexpectadly another Zeno. Fuckin hell what had we gotten ourselves into now.          

Helping a friend get their revenge

The sun shone brightly onto the docks of Zyniii as i watched the Black Skull pirates load some supplies onto their ship. The Morvor cultist who killed Lucid's father had managed to procure a ship and escape our clutches. Fortunatley the Black Skull pirates had offered to take us on their ship to continue our pursuit of this pesky cultist.   Gurval decided to help the pirates load the supplies onto the ship while i waited on the docks with my fellow misfits. We had experienced a lot together but despite that Gurval was still an enigma to me. He had a friendly nature and seemed happy to chat to the locals during our travels, but on the other hand he had an immense hatred for his own people and a barbaric side you wanted to steer clear of. I often wondered if there was something more to his hate then a simple repulsion for the magic of his people. What terrible things had the Phrat'ii done to him which caused him to hate them so?   The pirates finished loading the supplies onto the ship and then Prince Liuni turned up. He was accompanined by a young frog lady, athough now that i think about it i remember Lucid mentioning they were called the Nusaru. Prince Liuni gave us advice on where we should sail and then introduced us to his Nusaru companion called Froblena. He wished for her to accompany us and felt that her abilites would be beneficial in our search for the murderous cultist. We welcomed her to our group of misfits and then we set sail.   _________________________________________________________________________________________   We sailed away from the docks and a few minutes later Lucid asked if he could takeover at the helm. The helmsman reluctantly stepped aside and let Lucid take the helm. It became obvious pretty quickly that Lucid did not know how to steer a ship. I think he was hoping to tap into the skills of the sea captain's soul that resided in him, but was unsuccessful. Yifeng and Froblena's skills were on full display, Froblena manipulated the water around the ship while Yifeng manipulated the wind hitting the sails. Thanks to their combined efforts we had smooth sailing out of Zyniii.   I gazed out to the ocean and various thoughts swam around in my head like the fishes in the deep blue sea. I recalled when i had first travelled to Zyniii by ship, so much has happened since which has expanded my worldview. I do not regret my decesion to leave home and seek adventure, even though i now feel the bitter sting of my fathers disappointment.   My musings were interrupted by a large wave and strong winds which caused the ship to suddenly soar through the air for a few seconds. The ship's momentum caused most of us to be flung upwards but thankfully i was able to land gracefully onto Gallant's back. Gurval's cow and the pirate Toes were thrown overboard, thank goodness Gurval was able to summon his cow back onto the boat, and Toes too since he was strapped onto the cow. Part of me felt that the pirates should just put Toes out of his misery, he did not exactly have a good quality of life since he was missing all his limbs.   After i regained my compsure i went to sit with Arthom. and asked about his history with the female druid Celia. I figured asking him about Celia might open him up to talk about his past more, but he answered it was none of my business. I told him i got the impresssion he did not like talking about his past. He agreed and then unexpectadly said that he did not think people would want to hear about his past. I said to him that i would be happy to hear his story and gave him a reassuring tap on the shoulder. At first he just stared at me and then he offered me a drink from his flask, maybe he appreciated my sentiments after all.   Meanwhile Syrus was scouting the water around us and had now flown back to tell us that he spotted a ship up ahead, and the person giving the orders on that ship matched Lucid's description of his father's murderer. Lucid called us to attention and together we came up with an attack plan which would give Lucid the chance to avenge his fathers death. Yifeng had an issue with inflicting harm to the crew on the enemy ship, i admired her desire for peace but the reality was the cultists would not think twice about attacking us, which i made sure to mention to her. Instead she woud check the ship for any prisoners that she could set free.   ____________________________________________________________________________   Yifeng and Froblena used their powers to get us closer to the enemy ship, whilst Ko Rava and Zyanya used their magic to cast an illusion around our ship so it looked like our ship was an approaching storm. We were getting closer to the enemy ship when suddenly a stone pilar rose out of the water in front of us. Ko Rava let go of Zyanna's hand and drew a symbol in the air with her Katana, the symbol glowed pink and then a force pushed our ship away from the pillar. I was grateful for Ko Rava's quick thinking in that moment and was impressed by her powers. I was also impressed by Zyanna's ability to keep the illusion going while so much was happening.   We pulled up alongside the enemy ship and I could see that the crew of the enemy ship were Nusaru. Gurval teleported onto the enemy ship and brought with him Arthom, Lucid, Yifeng and Froblena. Myself, Zyanya , Ko Rava and Syrus stayed on our ship to provide ranged attacks if need be. As soon as they landed on the enemy ship the Nusaru raised their crossbows and the Morvor cultist sneered at Lucid. He said something to Lucid which i could not make out, but it must have been bad because Lucid threw a dagger at the cultist, which landed into his hand. Then Lucid lunged at the cultist and they started exchanging blows. Syrus shot a projectile at him and then i shot an arrow at him with my bow. Zyanya shot projectiles at the cultist with her magic and Ko Rava shot lighting at him. Our combined efforts had wounded the cultist but he was a tough bastard cause he was still standing.   While this was happening i could see that Froblena was talking to the Nusaru, Yifeng and Gurval had dissappered below deck by this stage. Whatever Froblena had said to the Nusaru was enough to convince them to drop their crossbows, and then they all jumped into the water.   Lucid threw more of his daggers at the cultist and i was amazed at his speed during the fight, then in one swift movement he decapitated the cultist. Now that he had gotten his revenge did he feel complete or did he still feel hollow inside? I guess only time will tell.                              

A bunch of misfits and a surprise visit

A few days later i accompanied Syrus, Arthom and Gurval to a tavern in the Emerald district, Lucid and Zyanya met us at the tavern about an hour after we had arrived there. During my conversation with Zyanya i found out she had stopped performing at the Velvet Lotus, the owners kicked her out because of her association with us. I felt bad this had happened to her, although she said she was okay. She striked me as someone who knew how to use her charms to her advantage and to help increase her chances of survival. I also had a feeling that beneath that swagger of hers was a compassionate side that only a few people got to see.   I spoke with Lucid and told him briefly about my drug induced spiritual journey along with the divine blessing i received from Skipan. I appreciated that he was willing to listen to me talk about my experience. Lucid then told us the sad news that his father had been killed by Morvor cultists. He had been alienated from his father for most of his life and they had only recently connected. I was sorry to hear he had lost a loved one and expressed my condolences to him. I could sense that he was very sad they did not have more time together.   I couldn't help but notice that Gurval had left the tavern shortly after we had arrived. He returned later with a slender female Mokuna, and to my surprise Ko Rava, i was curious how he had gotten the message to Ko to come tonight. He told us his Mokuna companion was called Yifeng and that Ko Rava needed our help to take down the Triad. Yifeng then informed us that she is part of the Triad and wanted to use to her connections to assist Ko Rava. She wished for us to find a diplomatic way to dismantle the gang that did not include violence. We usually tried to avoid a violent outcome and alot of the times the other party attacked us first, which i mentioned to Yifeng. My first impresssion of Yifeng was that she seemed like a nice person, however it complicated matters that her mum was one of the Triad leaders.   I was glad we had the chance to talk to Ko Rava in detail about our efforts to find her, and the bad things we had heard about the Yakuza during our search. Plus i made it clear to her that we would nevertheless intentionally hurt someone she cared about. I also asked her why she wanted to destroy the Triad and she explained it was because her brother was in trouble with the Yakuza leaders. She planned to take credit for the Triad's downfall, which should then give her a good reputation within the Yakuza. She hoped this good reputation would be enough to save her brother. I told her i would gladly help her and it was the least i could do after what had happened with her sister. She appreciated this and i was happy that we were speaking again. She had experienced sorrow at such a young age and i prayed she would not experiance any more loss in her lifetime.   It then crossed my mind that Arthom seemed to be in higher spirits tonight, despite the fact that Ko Rava still appeared to annoy him. Arthom has not talked to me about his life before he joined our group of misfits, which made me wonder if he used his grumpy nature to mask his feelings. Maybe he has experienced tragedies in his life, and this mask was his way of hiding the sadness he still felt from those painful memories.   __________________________________________________________________________________________   Zyanya later announced that she had a reliable contact that could help us, this contact turned out to be Prince Liuni from Diomeda, talk about unexpected. I could not help but blurt out it was the prince the minute he lowered his hood. He looked slightly annoyed when i did, im assuming its because i unintentionally spoiled his grand reveal. In my defence he was the last person i expected to see walk into the tavern that night. I was amazed that he had escaped Diomeda considering there had been a volcanic eruption there. I was astonished to hear that Diomeda was not completely destroyed, unfortunatley the Enkelados cult has since invaded the place and its currently under marshal law.   He came to Zyniii hoping to find someone who could help him defeat the Enekelados cult, they wanted to conquer other lands and would not just stop at Diomeda, he also felt the other cults had the same idea. This prompted Lucid to request our help with stopping the Morvor cultist from leaving Zyniii. My head was still reeling from all the information when Syrus revealed that he had previously joined a gang in his homeland. He wanted to leave the gang and his brother was also in trouble with the gang. He had come to Zyniii with Saib to get rid of the other gangs, which would leave a power vacum for his gang to fill, then hopefully he could leave it.   Just when i though the night could not get any more intense Kyra turned up with Toes, whose torso was saddled on the back of Gurval's cow. Even though we had stopped him dying he still looked pretty catatonic on top of that cow. I was slightly peeved that Gurval's cow was allowed in the Tavern but Gallant had to sit ouside. Kyra asked Lucid to come back to the Black Skulls, she also asked me again if i wanted to Join them. Lucid was able to convience her to wait till he dealt with his current problems and i told her i wanted to help my friends with their problems. I had thought a lot about her offer and she seemed to geniunely respect me. But the idea of being a pirate that hurt innocent people and stole from them did not still well with me.   The prince departed not long after telling us Zyanya knew how to reach him, i did not expect tonight to be so full of revelations. We continued to discuss the various issues we now faced and Lucid stressed the importance of staying together, because every time we spread apart people died, I agreed with him. In the end myself and my fellow misfits decided that we would first help Lucid deal with the Morvor cultist, then afterwards we would deal with Ko Rava and Yifeng's with Triad problem.      

Revisting the trauma

We went back to Syrus's hideout and rested for a short time. Afterwards we spoke about Syrus's idea to get the group back together and take down the gangs in Zyniii. I thought it was a good idea and was happy to help him make Zyniii a safer place to live. We also discussed the ultimatum we had with the Black Bone pirates. We thought it best to wait till Lucid had joined us again before we arranged a meeting with them. Syrus suggested that in the meantime we could locate the bodies of Fingers and Toes at the Victri mansion. I was not keen on going back to that mansion but also knew right now this was our best course of action.   We started to head towards the Ruby district when suddenly there was a loud bang and dense smoke filled the air. My vision was obscured by the smoke and after i got kicked to the ground i felt a sharp blade on my neck. Someone then demanded that we tell them what happened to Fingers and Toes. Gurval must have avoided being knocked down because he told them to let us go so we could talk. I got to my feet and noticed a familair insinga on thier clothing which confirmed my suspicions they were Black bone pirates. We told them about Fingers and Toes death and that we were now going to retrieve their bodies. One of the pirates introduced herself as Kyra and insisted they accompany us to the mansion. We had no issue with this since we were going to bring the bodies to them anyway, so Kyra and two of her crewmates accompanied us to the Victri mansion.   _____________________________________________________________________________________   I was surprised to find that some of the mansion's foundation was still intact after the fire. The front doors had come off their hinges and a majority of the doorway had collapsed. Syrus used magic to blow away the doors and then we squeezed our way through a small opening, Gurval choose to find a different entrance. We made our way into the front lobby and then the front entrance caved in blocking our exit.   Once we were inside it felt like a weight was pressing down on me making it hard for me to breathe. There were various doors and also a stairway leading downstairs. We headed downstairs and found cells with rotting corpses, i could not help but retch from the smell. At the end of the cell block was a locked door. Gurval had found a way into the mansion by this stage and we managed to break the lock. We walked into the room and i was shocked by what i saw. There were various naked bodies with collars around their necks that had been strapped down on tables. I could only imagine what had been done to them against their will and shuddered at the thought.   We went back to the main lobby and walked through one of the various doors. There was not much light and then Arthom fell into a hole in the floor. I looked into the hole but it was too dark to see anything at the bottom. I called out to Arthom but there was no reply and i was worried he had gotten hurt. Gurval used magic to teleport to the bottom and Syrus also flew to the bottom. I screamed out asking if they needed help but all i got was a response from Gurval saying dont send Talu. I was annoyed with him and believed i could have provided some assistance. Sure i had a couple of close shaves in our previous battles but there were many other times that i had helped to defeat the enemy. They seemed to only focus on my shortcomings. Kyra then suggested that i continue searching the mansion with her and her crewmates.   I decided to go with Kyra since the others did not want my help. As we searched Kyra told me that i should not let my companions disrespect me, that she was rooting for me, and that i was welcome to join her crew. I had to admit her offer did intrigue me a bit. We eventually found our way to a large ballroom and i remembered the Victri party was held here. However the room was now littered with multiple mutilated bodies, some even women and children. I hated the Victri but was still horrified at the carnage before me, and knew that they had died by the claws and teeth of Arthom as a warhound. I had some idea of what his rage was like but did not expect it to be this extreme.   At the far end of the ballroom were four doors and one door seemed very familiar to me. I went to walk through the door but then froze on the spot. With Kyra's help i was able to convinence myself to walk into what ended up being a large kitchen. As i looked around images of what i had experienced here came to mind. It was then that i noticed the raised table in the middle of the room where Fingers had been carved up, only now all that was left was a skull with a finger shoved into each eye socket. I stared at the skull and then banged my fist on the table in frustration, i was so angry at the Victri for what they did to Fingers and me. Kyra and her crewmate then gave me a hug and i was grateful for their compassion in that moment.   We left the kitchen to find only Syrus and Gurval had made their way to the ballroom. I asked if Arthom was alive and Gurval pointed to the spider on his shoulder. Arthom could shift into so many forms that i sometimes lost track of them. We decided to check out another adjoining room and discovered what looked like bodies wrapped in silk. As we started to unwrap the bodies we found Toes and were amazed to discover he was still alive. He was at deaths door however and was missing all his limbs. Syrus used his magic to stabilize Toes and then Arthom and i used magic to cure his wounds.   We left the mansion through a window that Gurval had used earlier. All of a sudden red lighting struck the ground and then Gurval's cow appeared. He let Kyra and her crewmates borrow the cow to transport Toes back to their ship along with Fingers skull. They left and then we decided our next stop would be the Amenthyst district to locate Lucid.              

A Godly influence

I ambled down the market street with Gallant by my side and my thoughts drifted to the battle at the Yakuza warehouse. I wondered if i would ever get the chance to speak to Ko Rava again, and what it would take for her to forgive us. I then heard a recognisable voice and spotted Gurval conversing with a frog lady. He introduced the frog lady as Mami and mentioned she was trying to sell a green substance that had magical properties. I doubted the substance had any magic and tried to discourage Gurval from purchasing it. However Mami was pretty convincing cause he bought it in the end.   Afterwards Gurval started speaking with a frog man on the street and they both tried to convince me to eat the green substance with them. I had no intention of swallowing the substance given my recent ordeal with the Victri. Gurval noticed my reluctance and suggested they would ingest the substance first. Nothing appeared to happen after they ate it which eased my mind a little. The frog man then grabbed the green substance and out of nowhere shoved his hand into my mouth.   __________________________________________________________________________   I walked down the street feeling dizzy and then tripped over Gurval's tail. All of a sudden I was falling through a rainbow coloured sky and eventually landed on grass. I was in a forest and it dawned on me this was the Tire woods of my home, although i felt uneasy due to the odd atmosphere. A figure appeared in the distance but i was unsure if they were friend or foe so i started running. The figure called out my name and i turned around with an arrow nocked my bow. The figure approached me and once they got closer i discovered he was a Lupo. He said that i needed guidance and knew my family well. I then got a strong feeling this was my ancestor and began to tell him about all the troubles i had been facing. It felt good to talk to someone about my doubts and fears. I was not sure if my companions cared enough about my inner turmoils so i never really divulged my feelings to them. After i had blurted out my thoughts he said that i had yet to ask the right questions. I was puzzled by his answer and was about to inquire further, but then a group of monsters who looked like my nightmares come to life appeared. I went to use my bow only to discover that my weapons had disappeared so I ran. Long tentacles burst from the monsters and started to wrap around me. As the tentacles started to engulf me i heard voices saying that i was a worthless disappointment. I broke free with all the strength i could muster and ran, but then my ancestor called out that i needed to face my fears. I stopped running and turned to face my nightmares, if i was going die at least i would not die a coward.   The ground unexpectadly gave way and then i fell on top of Gurval. The same trees from my homeland surrounded us but there was also a sandy river bank with palm trees beside us. Gurval did not seemed phased by our current predicament, and had made friends with a short person whose face was a wooden mask. The person was dancing and saying that Gurval and i needed to jump into the river to find a branch, apparently this branch was important. I had yet to come up with an exit strategy so i decided to go along with the dancing man's suggestion. I jumped into the river with Gurval and dived down to find the branch. But then i was running out of air and those same voices from before were screaming in my head as i passed out.   I came to and saw my ancestor standing beside me, then i looked to the sky and was mesmerised by a multitude of dazzling, bright stars. As i sat there gazing at the stars a sense of overwhelming sadness consumed me. I always tried so hard to prove myself, but sometimes it felt like my efforts were a waste of time. While i sat there contemplating whether or not i should give up a small sprite, which looked like a physical manifestation of a moonbeam, wandered over to me. The moon sprite asked why i was sad so i poured out my thoughts to them. They looked at me with kindness as they told me I was a good friend and a strong individual who had potential. We discussed Skipan's symbol and then a crescent moon shone brightly in the sky. Their words comforted me and i realised this whole time that i had been sitting on a moon.   The moon started falling and then crashed into a river that appeared to be flowing with milk. I managed to stay on the moon while it fell and as i held on i noticed Gurval was also in the river. He was surrounded by small creatures who looked like drops of milk and one kept asking him to shoot a cannon to save them from some Victri. I looked around and was shocked to find a manifestation of the frog lady whose breasts were two large cannons. After the breast cannons shot at the Victri in the distance the moon started to rise. I jumped off the moon deciding to let the river of milk lead me somewhere new.   The milk river began to surge and the current was strong that it kept knocking me underwater. I swam to the surface and to my surprise collapsed onto solid ground. The river had dissappered and i was in the familar surroundings of the Emerald Heart. The crescent moon shone brightly in the sky and its bright moonlight lit up the area. Just then a dazzling wolf appeared in the sky and I knew without a doubt that this was almighty Skipan. His divine face looked down at me and then he asked me who i fought for. I shouted out that i fought for those who cannot fight for themselves, i fought for the downtrodden in society, i fought to defend my family, my friends and my tribe. His continued to look down at me and it was as if he was gazing into my very soul. He cried out that i must remember his past, and that if i wished to receive his power i must be prepared to do whatever is necessary to stop the ambition of Kaa.   I thought about what it meant to accept his divine offer and how that would affect my relationship with Syrus. However my desire to prove myself, to find meaning in my life and to become an expectional warrior was more important to me. I bellowed out that i would accept his offer and would do whatever was needed to stop Kaa's ambition. A beam of bright moonlight shone down engulfing me in its radiance, and as i raised my arms to the sky Skipan bestowed upon me his lunar power. The moon sprite gifted me with a quiver of magical arrows, and then we both danced in celebration.   Everything around me became a blur and a second later i found myself back on the market street in Zyniii, being dragged by Gallant. As my head started to clear i saw Syrus was beside me, and Gurval was being dragged Arthom who was in his warhound form. I could feel the power of Skipan's blessing surging in my veins and felt the extra quiver of arrows slung on my shoulder. I was finally going to show the world what i was truly made of. Now that i had lunar power flowing in my veins, my enemies had better watch out.        

If only we had known sooner

I hung onto Gallant while he ran back to the scene of the crime, and as we got closer i could see Arthom's gleam pod was destroyed. There was a large lizard standing in what looked like molten lava and i instantly recognised that it was Arthom in his new lizard form. He was being attacked by a Leishu in leather armor holding a large sword, who i concluded was from the Yakuza gang. I also spotted Syrus in the sky not too far from where Arthom was.   Once Gallant and i were in range i aimed my bow at the leather clad Leishu and shot an arrow into their shoulder. Gallant luckily skidded to a halt just before the ring of lava so we did not get burned. I shot another arrow at the leather clad Leishu but they managed to deflect it with their sword. Lucid then turned up with Zyanya and Zeno. My first thought was to question Zyanya about the abandonded Yakuza warehouse that she had told us about, but then concluded now was not the time.   The Leishu then swung their sword and immedialty after there was a flash of bright, piercing light. It was so bright that for a few minutes i could not see anything and it felt like i was blinded. I could hear screams next to me and also smelt burning flesh. Suddenley there was a strong gust of wind which knocked me back and based on the yelps i heard i assumed Gallant was also. I picked myself up off the ground and to my relief could sense my vision was returning. The last thing i expected to see next was Ko Rava standing in front of me.   I was stunned, after weeks of searching for her without any solid leads she had just appeared out of nowhere. She then demanded to know why we had killed her sister. I spotted a smouldering corpse on the ground next to Arthom and realised with horror, this was all that was left of Ko Rava's sister. I saw immense grief in Ko Rava's eyes and felt horrible that we had unknowlingly killed her sister. By this stage Syrus had joined us and Arthom had shifted out of his lizard form. I started to tell Ko Rava about our search for her but then she told me to shut the fuck up. Thoughts of my near death experience with the Victri and the chance that i risked alienating my family further by leaving again raced through my mind. I let my emotions get the better of me and screamed back at her saying that we had come to Zyniii to look for her cause we thought she was in trouble, and that i had nearly died at a Victri party looking for her. To my amazement Arthom then told her to not get mad at me cause i had gone out of my way trying to find her. I was touched that he had looked out for me in that moment.   In hindsight i should not have screamed at Ko Rava considering that at the time she had just discovered her sister was dead, and the last thing on her mind was what had happeneed to us these last few days. She yelled back that she was fine this whole time and that we never should have looked for her. Just then i heard a loud booming voice cry out to stop and was astonised to find Gurval standing on a nearby rooftop holding two Leishu. He then cast misty step and teleported to us from the roof. I realised one of the Leishu he was holding was the small Leishu with streaks of orange in their fur. Ko Rava snapped at Gurval to let her brother go and then once Gurval released them Ko Rava grabbed both their hands and started to walk away. She looked at us with such hate in her eyes as she walked past us and told us to not seek her out again.   _________________________________________________________________________________   We stood in silence for a few minutes still in shock, then Syrus stated that he could not deal with what just happened and flew away. I then asked Gurval if this Mister Opah had given any useful information when he sent the message to Gurval about Ko Rava. All Gurval could recall was that Mister Opah had only said Ko Rava was in trouble and nothing else. It frustrated me that this Mister Opah had not had given any useful information in the first place. Not knowing what else to do i then suggested to Arthom that we go to a tavern to drown our sorrows in booze. He agreed and mentioned that we first needed to drop off the crystals strapped on Gallant to the Gleam boys gang, who had the crystal pods.   Later i sat with Arthom at the tavern reflecting on what had happened and on our search for Ko Rava. All our efforts to find her had ended up being in vain. I still could not believe that our actions caused the death of her sister and then my thoughts drifted to my sister Elu , and i could not bear the thought of anything bad happening to her. The last thing i wanted was to cause my friend pain, which is exactly what had happened. Somehow I would earn Ko Rava's forgiveness, and I did not plan to go back home until I had at least repaired the now fractured friendship we had.

Petty thievery with a side of crystals

The crystals were being kept in a building located in a rundown industrial area. I walked towards the building accompanied by Lucid and Gallant, and saw in the distance a bunch of Leishu guards standing around the front entrance. We made sure to keep out of sight of the guards as we figured out what our next move would be. Meanwhile Syrus and Saib were keeping a lookout on a nearby rooftop.   Lucid proceeded to create a small shadowy portal and then threw a dagger through it. Another small portal must have opened up in front of the Leishu guards because that same dagger ended up hitting one of them. Lucid then produced an illusion of himself which ran past the guards. A majority of the guards followed after the illusion but unfortunatly a couple of them did not take the bait and stayed in front of the building. I had wondered what powers Lucid had gotten since his transformation and was glad that i got to see these powers in action. I then shot a couple of arrows at the two remaining guards and got them both in the leg. The guards retaliated by throwing a dagger into my shoulder and another one into my leg. I pushed past the pain letting the adrenalin take over. Plus when i considered the pain i had experienced in my previous battles a couple of daggers was manageable.   Gallant than ran towards one of the guards and knocked them out with a headbutt. Lucid attempted to sneak up on the remaing guard but was unnsuccessful. The guard then swung his sword and fortunately Lucid was able to dodge the attack. Lucid continued to fight the remaining guard and then Gallant knocked him out. Afterwards Gallant ran to my side and i could sense he was concerned about the daggers sticking out of me. I reassured him i was okay and felt lucky that Gallant was part of my life.   Arthom then approached on a gleam pod and made a snide comment about how he needed us to district the guards, not knock them out. I figured knocked out guards was not a bad outcome considering how badly it could have gone. He then made his way to the building entrance, shifted into a spider and slipped into the building.   __________________________________________________________________________   While we waited for Arthom to grab the crystals i went about pulling the daggers out of my leg and shoulder, and then ripped off part of my cloak to wrap around the wounds. It was not the best patch up job but i needed to stop the bleeding somehow. Soon after a loud ringing noise sounded from the building and then Arthom ran out. He started to load the crystals into the gleam pod but was interrupted when a short Leishu with streaks of orange fur ran out of the building and attacked him. Syrus had swooped down from the rooftop by this stage and between the two of them they were then able to subdue the Leishu.   We did not have time to relax however because Gallant started growling and then i saw the group of guards from before running towards us. Gallant held them back initially which allowed me to shoot arrows at them. I then cast ensnaring strike and shot more arrows at them which entangled them in piercing vines when they got hit by the arrows. It felt great to finally be using my skills as a warrior effectivley in battle. Lucid used his new powers to cover their faces with thick shadowy clouds which seemed to knock them out. I had to admit his new powers were impressive. Arthom then sent a message to me telepathically asking to send Gallant to him. A few minutes later Gallant came back to me and i could see he had some of the crystals strapped on his back. I then got another telepathic message from Arthom saying to leave the area and meet back at Syrus and Saib's hideout.   I trusted Arthom knew what he was doing and started running away with Gallant. I did not get far however because i then heard a loud crashing sound in the distance. Fearing for my friends safety i then jumped onto Gallant and urged him to run swiftly back to the building to investigate what had happened.      

A small time gang and their crystal vehicles

About a week had passed and we were no closer to locating Ko Rava. I had barely slept these past few days cause i kept having nightmares involving Fingers mutilated body, and being paralyzed whilst a shadowy figure stood over me with a knife. I hated that feeing of not being in control and of my body being trapped. I was also mad at myself for being so stupid, i drunk that Victri's concoction without any thought of the potential danger i could be putting myself in. I had been raised to be smarter, but in that moment i became a silly wolf from the forest who did not know any better. Well that was going to change and i was determined to never make a fool of myself like that again.   After the week had passed i went with Lucid, Syrus and Saib to look for Gurval and Arthom. We ended up at a dingy tavern called Ramfauna which was in the Emerald district. Once inside we scanned the tavern for any sign of them and Syrus eventually spotted Arthom sitting at a table in the corner of the tavern. I went and sat beside Arthom, I could tell he was heavily intoxicated and he had a dejected look to him. He did not seem pleased to see me but at least did not tell me to leave. I tried to convienance him to join again in the search for Ko Rava but he responded that there was no point, and for all we knew she was probably dead. I urged him to not give up hope and that we just needed to look for more leads, but my words did not seem to be cheering him up. Seeing that i was not making any progress i told him that in the end i hoped he would join myself and the others and left it at that. I was about to get up and walk away when a female elf with thick red hair, and wearing a black leather jacket, sat at the table.   She introduced herself as Rider and then asked what had brought us to Zyniii. I gave her a brief rundown of our search for Ko Rava and what we knew so far about the Yakuza. I then asked if she happened to know any thing about the Yakuza in Zyniii, to which she responded that she did not wish to talk about them. She then went to sit at a nearby table that was occupied with an older elf who was analyzing some small crystals, and an elf whose hair was the colour of silver. She appeared to know both of them.   I suggested to Arthom that he go and strike up a conversation with them because i had a feeling that this Rider knew something about the Yakuza, and my attempt to get any information had failed. He relunctatly agreed and sat at their table, and was able to strike up a conversation. A few seconds later i sat with them followed by Lucid and Saib.   Rider was telling Arthom about a new style of racing that used a vehicle called a gleam pod. It sounded interesting and i was eager to see what these vehicles looked like. Then Saib started flirting with Rider and from what i could tell she seemed to liked it, and was flirting back. Syrus had now joined us and Lucid began a conversation with the older elf who then told us his name was Forge. We asked him about the Yakuza and all he told us was that he knew they were dangerous and it was unlikely our friend was alive. At the mention of the Yakuza the silver haired dwarf left the table and went to the bar. We continued to inquire with Forge about the Yakuza but then he uttered to go speak with Chatter and pointed to that same silver haired elf. Chatter did not have any further information to provide but assured us that she would be on the lookout for any new information about Ko Rava. _____________________________________________________________________________________________   I was intrigued by this new racing style that Rider had told us about and asked Forge if i could see a race. Forge was happy to oblige and had convinced Arthom to participate in one. We went outside and i saw four very large crystals that were floating just above the ground. These ended up being the gleam pods that Rider had mentioned earlier. Forge then approached one of the crystals and a few minutes later one side of the crystal disappeared. Forge then mentioned to Arthom that you needed to connect with the gleam pod mentally to be able to race it, and instructed him on how to connect to it. Chatter entered one of the other gleam pods and Arthom jumped into the one Forge had interacted with. It looked like Arthom got the hang of how to control the gleam pod cause a minute later the pod he was in zoomed off and a second later Chatter zoomed off in the other pod. Some time later they arrived back at the tavern and it turned out Arthom had won the race. They did not stick around long though and rode away from the tavern shortly after.   Myself, Syrus, Saib and Lucid had eventually gone back to the hideout and hours later Arthom turned up. He told us he ended up making a deal which Chatter which involved us to going to another Yakuza warehouse and stealing some crystals that they needed for the gleam pods. If successful Chatter would then reward us and potentially give us information. Arthom also believed that we could find something in the warehouse to help with our search for Ko Rava.   Since we had no new leads i agreed to help Arthom and so did Lucid and Saib. Syrus also agreed to help and then unexpectadly he started telliing off Arthom. He essentially told him to stop being a grump and to be a bit nicer to everyone. I half expected Arthom to punch Syrus, but luckily a fight did not break out. Now we just needed to figure out how we were going to steal these crystals, and not get hurt in the process.  

A party with a horrible outcome

We went to the Amenthyst district to check out the Yakuza warehouse that Zyanya had told us about, but when we got there it was abandoned. Either we had gotten the time wrong or she gave us the wrong information. Regardless i was so annoyed that we had wasted our time.   Lucid then suggested that we go to the Victri party that Arthom had gotten an invite to the night before. Since we had no other leads i thought we might as well go, and if were lucky we would get some information there. Arthom and Syrus agreed with Lucid's suggestion. Gurval reluctantly agreed but I could tell he would have preferred not to go, probably had something to do with his major dislike for the Victri. Toes, Fingers and Saib decided they would come too. We ventured to the outskirts of the Ruby district and walked up to a fancy looking mansion. We entered through the front doors and once we got inside the other guests stared at us, which made me feel that we stood out, and not in a good way,   A female victri approached us and after welcoming us to the party then escorted us to the cloak room. She told us she had met Arthom at the Velvet Lotus tavern and had invited him to the party. I introduced myself and she told me her name was Lacey, and then she gave us some garments to wear for the party. Once we left the cloakroom Lacey arranged for a waiter to bring us some drinks. I had only ever seen Gurval drink milk, so i was intrigued when he asked to taste my wine, however he found the taste disgusting and asked what the beverage was. I tried to explain what wine was made of but i don't think it changed his opinion of the taste. We then went to mingle with some of the other guests, expect for Gurval who choose to stay to the side of the room and keep to himself.   l looked around and saw a smartly dressed Victri with slim goggles, standing at a table filled with various glass bottles and flasks. I approached him and then inquired about the items on the table. He advised me that was a creator of sorts and liked to test his creations at the Victri parties. He then offered for me to sample one of his concoctions, assuring me it was not harmful. Letting my curiosity get the better of me i then drank some of the blue coloured beverage. A few minutes went by but nothing happened and then after i excused myself i went to chat with Gurval and Toes. Toes informed me he had a crush on Arthom and asked me if i could put in a good word to Arthom. I told Toes that i had assumed Arthom was into females but had no issue in braggin about him to Arthom. Suddnely my stomach started to feel bad and after asking a random Victri where the bathroom was, i went to look for it in a hurry.   ________________________________________________________________________________________________   I opened my eyes and realised i had passed out during my attempt to locate the bathroom. I could feel that i was laying on a cold surface and then attempted to get up, but shockingly i could barley move no matter hard i tried. I tried to reach out to Gallant through my mental bond with him and when that did not work i whistled out to him, unfortuntaly he did not turn up. Suddently i heard a blood curdling scream and just managed to turn my head to see someone tied down onto a table, close to where i was lying. Pools of red liquid, which looked like blood, was on the floor around them and then i noticed a shadowy figure in black clothing standing over them. They continued to scream and i then i realised to my horror that this figure was cutting off the persons arm. I could smell what seemed lke meat and saw a steaming cauldron next to them, and then a leg poked out of that same cauldron.   I started to scream but then stopped myself, not wanting to draw the attention of the shadowy figure. I began to panic and was scared that i was next on the chopping board. Suddenly i felt a hand stroking the top of my head and a voice exclaimed that they were glad the potion had worked. It then dawned on me that it was that same Victri that i had spoken to earlier who was now taunting me. He went on to say that he had lied when he assured me his concotions were not harmful and was now going to experiment with the rest of them on me. Luckily i started to feel the effects of the potion starting to wear off and attempted to lift myself off the floor, but then the Victri held me down. I silently prayed to Skipan and it felt like the strength of a god was flowing through me as i pushed the Victri off me. I then heard what sounded like a howl and it seemed like i could see almighty Skipan appear beside me. I stormed over to the Victri and bit him in the neck, and then tore out part of his throat.   The shadowy figure had disappeared by this stage and when i looked over i was shocked to see that it was Fingers that the shadowy figure had been hurting. Fingers had been cut open and was missing both his legs and an arm. His eyes were rolled back in his head and he was not moving, his body was so mutilated that i came to the conclusion he was dead. I was sad that he had died in such a horrible, painful way. I ran off to go find the others, hoping they had not been attacked.   _____________________________________________________________________________________________________   I ran out through the first door i saw and keep running but got lost amongst the various hallways. I ran into a large room and there were a bunch of Victri crowded around a sunken pit in the ground. I pushed through the crowd and was shocked to see Gallant in the pit with Lucid. He was attempting to bite Lucid but Lucid keep dodging the attack. I was so worried they were going to hurt each other badly, Gallant was frothing at the mouth and his eyes looked red. I screamed out to Gallant to stop which he did and then his eyes seemed to fade back to their normal colour. He no longer looked at Lucid with aggresion and then Lucid jumped onto Gallant. Gallant at first tried to shake Lucid off him but then i told Gallant to stop thrashing and jumped into the pit. I got onto Gallant also and then Gallant trampled over some Victri as we rode away.   We managed to find our way back to the main room where the party had been and came upon a chaotic scene. Syrus was standing over Lacey who was cradeling someone in her arms and their head looked like it had been torn apart. Arthom had shifted into a warhound and was attacking the remaining Victri in the room. Then Gurval walked over to Lacey and said something to her, and after she responded he iaid his hands on her face like he was going to cure her. Only instead what looked red electricity was coming off his hands and he melted away the flesh on her face till there was nothing but a charred head. He then screamed out that we needed to leave and went outside along with Syrus, Arthom and Saib. I grabbed my weapons from the cloakroom and then Lucid, Gallant and myself joined the others outside.   Arthom had shifted out of his warhound form and then Gurval asked us if we ended up getting any information about Ko Rava. We stood there in silence and then Arthom punched the ground, the punch was so hard that the shockwave of it caused me to be knocked to the ground. I understood why Arthom was angry and was also pissed at how the night had turned out. Gurval argued with Arthom and then stated that he will find Ko Rava on his own, and in a flash of light was gone. I was worried we might not see him again and wondered what had happened to make his lay on hands power change form. Arthom walked back into the mansion and a few seconds later we could see smoke coming out of the windows, and then fire started engulfing the mansion. Arthom then walked out and without a word he shifted back into a warhound and ran off into the distance.   Syrus then mentioned that he and Saib had a hideout nearby so Lucid and i went back with them to the hideout. I was grateful to have escaped the jaws of death and for almighty Skipan protecting me in my time need.          

A stunning performance and a potential lead

We entered the Velvet Lotus tavern and my first impression was that it was a very classy establishment that catered to people with deep pockets. Yellow lanterns hung from the ceiling and there were beautiful yellow stained glass designs on the wall. Most of the other patrons in the tavern were of Mokuna descent so i assumed this was a popular hangout for them.   Music started playing and then we saw Zyanya and Zeno walk up some stairs onto a lavish stage in the middle of the room. They began to dance to the music and i could not help but be mezmerised by their performance. Once they finished their performance they went to the bar and i walked over to speak with them. I discovered that Zyanya had mainly spent the past few months in Zyniii working at the Velvet Lotus with Zeno. I told her about Ko Rava and asked if she happened to see Ko Rava during this time. All she could recall was that she had seen a Leishu in the crowd once but did not know for sure if it was Ko Rava. Then Syrus approached us and after chatting with him i learnt that he had spent most of these past 5 months in Zyniii. I told him about Ko Rava and he said that he had not seen her in Zyniii. It was nice to catch up with Zyanya and Syrus after all this time.   A grey elf then came over and after i introduced myself he said his name was Saib. It turned out he and Syrus had grown up together, and that there were a lot of grey elf refugees living in the Solen homeland which surprised me. I wondered if Saib had any interesting stories about Syrus as a child. I then asked Zyanya if she knew if any shady people frequented this tavern, but then Saib told me to be quiet and not ask this. His nervous response got me thinking he was scared of someone in this place. I then observed Gurval approaching a bunch of Mokuna in fancy suits, sitting at a table near the back of the tavern. He started to speak to them and they looked annoyed that he had approached them. I got the feeling they were the type of people you don't wanna mess with. Gurval did not get to chat with them though cause a couple of gorilla's that looked like they were security escorted Gurval outside.   I decided to ask the bartender if he had seen any Leishu come into the tavern, unfortunatley he had not. I then went outside with Arthom, Lucid and Syrus to check on Gurval. Gurval was fine and had managed to get some info from the two security guys. They told him there was a Leishu gang called the Yakuza that operated out of the Amethyst district. Syrus knew of this gang and mentioned that they were known to traffic children. Upon hearing this I got more concerned about Ko Rava's safety and hoped she had not gotten hurt.   ________________________________________________________________________________   We went back inside and hung for a bit around the bar. A few minutes later Zyanya walked past and it looked like she was trying to get our attention to follow her. Gurval, Lucid and i decided to follow her outside and then she told us that she had spoken with some Mokuna's and had information that we might find useful. She knew of about 3 Mokuna's who were from a gang called the Triad, and they were going to have a chat with the Leishu Yakuza at a warehouse. Apprantly the Triad bosses did not want their gang talking with the Yakuza, so there was a chance this could turn ugly. She intended to go with these Mokuna and thought we could use this as a distraction to look for Ko Rava.   I contemplated if there was more she was not telling us about her association with the Triad and how much she knew about their operation. I could see Gurval looked extremely angry once she gave us this information and was worried he was about to break something. He asserted that we did not know if we could trust these Mokuna since they could have alterior motives, which could cause more harm in finding Ko Rava. He told her it would be best to talk with the various street urchins in the Amethyst district to get more information and stormed back into the tavern. I thought Gurval had a point which i told Zyanya and then went back into the tavern.   The two dwarfs Fingers and Toes had tagged along with us to the tavern and fingers kept making advances to me throughout the night. I decided to let him give me a shoulder message to take advantage of the situation, but i had to keep making sure his hands did not extend past the shoulders. In the end Gurval, Lucid, Syrus, Arthom and myself decided that we would check out the Amenthyst district., Saib even offered to help us with our search for Ko Rava. I prayed we would find Ko Rava, or at very least a solid lead, at the Amenthyst district.    

A friend in need

About 5 months had passed since the torn leylines incident and then the universe gave me a reason to leave home again. I had been practising my archery one morning, and had missed the target more than once due to anxiety because father was watching. He did not bother to hide his dissapointment and then we got into another discussion about my failed betrothal.   Suddenly a bunch of guards ran past us and to my surprise i saw Gurval sitting on what appeared to be a giant lizard of sorts coming towards us. Gallant looked like he was about to attack this giant lizard but i was able to calm him down. I greeted Gurval and told the guards to stand down because these visitors meant no harm. I was glad to see my friend and asked him who was the giant lizard that he was sitting on. It turned out to be Arthom which i would never had guessed snce i had only ever seen him turn into a warhound. I could see the dissaproval in my fathers eyes as he looked at Gurval, and Arthom roared in fathers face after he had started criticizing me about the type of friends i had made. Thank goodness they did not fight each other after that.   Gurval then said that a master Opah had entered his dream and said Ko Rava was in trouble. I did not hesitate telling Gurval that i would be happy to help him find our friend. Even though this meant dissapointing my family yet again, i knew i would have felt worse if i did nothing to help find Ko Rava. Father did not waste time in persuading me to stay and reminding me of the shame i would bring if i left again. I told him i needed to help my friend and hoped that he would welcome me back. I also asked him to explain to my mother and sister why i left. After i quickly packed my bag and weapons i jumped on Arthom, whistled to Gallant to follow and then left my homeland once again.   ______________________________________________________________________________________________   We arrived at a nearby coastal town and made our way towards the wharf. Gurval mentioned he had arranged passage for us to Zynii cause that was the last place Ko Rava was at, and was paying the captain with crates of milk from his milk farm. Arthom had shifted out of his lizard form and the Captain, who told us her name was Chicks, welcomed us on board. A few minutes later a group in black cloaks with a skull emblem walked past the boat. I thought i saw Lucid leading the group and Gurval must have thought so too cause he kept calling out Lucid's name. Lucid appeared to ignore Gurval and continued to walk towards town. I decided to invetigate further to see if it was Lucid and also thought we could use his help in finding Ko Rava.   I walked through the merchant section of the coastal town scanning for any sign of Lucid. I described Lucid to a couple of merchants to see if they knew of him, but all they did was try to sell me stuff. Suddenly Lucid appeared behind me and i did not waste time telling him about Ko Rava and that i needed him to decide now if he was going to help, because we ony had 15 iminutes before the ship left. Thankfully Lucid aggreed to help us.   Arthom seemed to ignore Lucid once we got on board and the ship departed. Suddenly Gurval screamed out and i ran to help him, I then realised he was okay and was showing off a prosthetic arm that Arthom had made him. I was always happy when Arthom showed his softer side since it was not often that we saw it. I spoke with Lucid and discovered he had joined a guild called the Black Skulls and had done some missions with them. Captain Chicks then called out and we saw another ship was approaching. As the ship got closer i could out make the crew was made up of various types of people including a dwarf with no arms. A female elf with a black eye patch and caramel dreadlocks, who i assumed was the captain, screamed out that she wanted to make a deal of sorts. Captain Chicks did not have a chance to respond because Gurval walked out of the hold with a barrel of milk and then cast a spell which teleported him to the other ship. He began offering the crew milk but they drew their swords and it was obvious they were not in the mood for milk.   I called out to Gurval to get back to our ship cause i was worried they would all attack him. Once he returned captain dreadlocks demanded that Captain Chicks hand over her ship. Lucid then attempted to talk with captain dreadlocks and she told Lucid that their former captain had shadow powers and had been killed by a pale Phrat'ii. Lucid then decided to tell them all about the soul that was fuzed with his which i thought was a silly idea. Upon hearing this the crew on the other ship looked like they wanted to attack us, but then captain dreadlocks stopped them and exclaimed their captain had returned in a new form. Captain dreadlocks then proposed that Captain Chicks could keep her ship but Lucid was to go with them and be their captain. Arthom was happy to let Lucid go and it dawned on me that he had not forgiven Lucid for taking the soul. I told captain Dreadlocks that we needed Lucid's help to find our friend and he could join them after. She seemed to accept this compromise and then demanded that her crewmembers Toes and Fingers would accompany us, to ensure we kept to the deal. After her crewmembers boarded our ship she leaned over to give Lucid a long deep kiss and then they sailed off.   The one called fingers would not leave me alone for the rest of the voyage and kept making lewd comments to me. Even though i told him i was not interested he did not seem to take the hint. We finally arrived at Zyniii and proceeded to find lodgings for the night. We currently had no idea where to begin to look for Ko Rava. Zyniii was such a large city it felt like we were looking for a needle in a haystack. As we were walking Gurval tripped and a poster fell on head. The poster had a picture of Zyanya and Zeno and announced their upcoming show at the Topaz district. We then decided that this would be where we would begin our search.  

I am not who i once was

After Nakah had informed us that the leylines were repaired i decided it was time to head back home. I guess you could call it wishful thinking, but i had thought that my tribe would have been more joyful upon my return. Don't get me wrong, they were very happy that i had returned alive and well but i guess i expected a bit more. My parents were very happy to see me and my sister was ecstatic that i was home. She could not wait to hear about my adventures and everything i had seen outside of our homeland. I was worried that my tribe would not let Gallant stay, and at first they did go to attack him when they saw this giant warhound walking beside me. Luckily i was able to persuade them to not harm him and they allowed him to stay.   Even though it was nice to be back home i can't help but feel i am now the black sheep of my tribe. Most of my fellow tribesman do not hesitate to remind me of their dissapointment that the alliance did not go through due to me rejecting the marriage to Takoda. I can also see how ashamed my parents are of me for turning down the marriage and letting down the tribe elders. Tokoda seems to have gotten over the bethrothal quickly because he is already married to someone else. My parents feel that i should be married and have been trying to find me a suitable match, although they have not had much luck so far.   I was not overly religious growing up but i found myself drawn to Skipan more once i went back home. I pray daily to Skipan asking for his guidance and help in becoming a better warrior, and also thank him for any blessings he has bestowed. I also asked for more training from one of the elder warriors of the tribe to improve my fighting skills. I want to be more effective in battle and could not help but be annoyed that i did not fight better in my previous battles.   Even though i was home i was not the same person, i had shed the person i once was like an old skin that no longer fit. My recent experiences had helped to shape the person i now was. Hopefully my tribe and family would learn to accept that i had changed.    

A kingdom destroyed

One minute the king was socializing and then the next minute he was a pile of ashes on the floor.   It felt like time stood still as we all stared at the pile of ashes that once was the king. Then people started screaming and panicking, nearly trampling over each other to get out of the ballroom. Some people on the dancefloor took off their fancy attire to reveal that they had been wearing cultist robes underneath. Red sparks of electricity surrounded them and i got the feeling that they were in league with the elf that had stabbed the king. Zeno and Zyanya had also been on the dancefloor and once the cultists revealed themselves Zeno attacked a couple of the cultists causing them harm. A cultist then shot lighting at Zeno and electrocuted him but it was not fatal. Luckily I had been able to sneak in my bow and quiver of arrows under a shawl, and i went to shoot an arrow at the cultist but unfortunatley the cultist dodged it. Zyanya cast a spell on a cultist which caused them to be frozen on the spot with fear. Zeno then kicked the cultist and I shot an arrow into that same cultist's head and it fell to the ground dead.   So much was happening amongst the chaos in the ballroom. I looked around and saw two enemies had killed prince Agostino, Arthom and Ko Rava killed those enemies and were also killing some of the other enemies around them. I could also see that Roza Baze and prince Liuni was killing some sort of elemental being. Syrus and Gurval were busy attacking the female elf that had killed the king. She also had red electricity surrounding her and unfortunatley she managed to zap Gurval and knock him down. Then John popped up out of nowhere near Gurval and helped him to his feet.   Just then more enemies entered the ballroom and i was not sure how we would be able to defeat them all since they seemed to outnumber us. The enemies dragged away one of the other princes and i could see that Arthom and Ko Rava were about to be surounded, but then Arthom shifted into a warhound, picked up Ko Rava in his mouth and headed to the entrance of the ballroom. Zeno then used a move which caused a shockwave to knock back some enemies and then myself, Zeno, Zyanya and Menet ran to where Arthom and Ko Rava were. We did what could to hold back the enemies and help the remaining civilians escape the ballroom whilst Syrus, Roza Baze, Gurval and John were attacking the kings killer.   Suddenly there was a flash and myself, Zyanya, Zeno, Syrus, Arthom, Lucid, Roza Baze, Ko Rava, John and Gurval found ourselves just outside the ballroom. I asked if any of the others knew how we got there and John then told us that he used his powers to teleport us. A large group of Aurelian reinforcements then arrived and went to deal with enemies in the ballroom. We were about to go and help them but then Lucid and Nakah were running up to us. Lucid exclaimed that a nearby volcano had erupted and lava was englufing the city, and was nearly at the palace. I then realised that i had not seen Gallant in a while but then he ran up to us and had the dragon egg in his mouth. I encouraged him to drop the egg and then Roza Baze picked it up. Before any of us had a chance to protest Nakah then opened a portal and said that we needed to get out of there before we got destroyed by the lava. We all stepped into the portal and left Diomeda to its unlucky fate.   __________________________________________________________________________________   The portal had luckily lead us back to Maya and once we had settled Nakah informed us that all the torn leylines had been repaired. He also mentioned that hopefully now he would be let into the Lazarus academy which seemed to really piss off Lucid and Ko Rava. He then thanked us for our help , opened a portal and left. I was not sure if we would ever see him again, but maybe that was not a bad thing.

A Royal encounter

The king was gracious enough to give my companions and i lodgings at a private residence just outside of the city. I was nervous about the upcoming ball and wondered what was the correct way to behave around royalty since i never attended a royal ball before. In my homeland i had revered the elders in our tribe showing them great respect and had attended tribal ceremonies my tribe performed. I was uncertain if my behaviour would be suitable when it came to people of regal standing, plus i figured a tribal ceremony was very different to a royal ball.   The next morning i heard a small squad of soliders approaching our residence. Myself, Roza Baze and Arthom went outside and an Aurelian elf in fancy clothing announced that prince Liuni had come to greet us. The prince astride a beautiful steed approcahed, dismounted and then greeted us. I attemped to curtzy at the prince and was glad that i did not trip over myself in the attempt. I let Roza Baze and Arthom do the talking since i was not ready at this stage to practise my social skills with a royal. The prince suggested that we visit a cloth merchant in town to obtain suitable clothing for the royal ball and gave us directions. He then departed with his entourage of soliders.   Not long after myself, Ko Rava, Arthom, Syrus, Lucid and Roza Baze headed towards the city centre to find the cloth merchant the prince had mentioned. Suddenly a portal opened above us and Nakah, Gurval and Zyanya fell out. They got to their feet andd told us they had been at Dabh this whole time looking for Velanna. Luckily they were able to find her and she was back at Maya. We then told them all about the arena fights and the invitation to the royal ball. At one point Arthom was picking on Ko Rava saying how much of a child she was. I reminded him that she had gone through a lot on this adventure and had a handled it as well as any adult. I think Ko Rava appreciated what i said because she then grinned at me.   We made our way to the clothes merchant's shop and once i saw the many equiste gowns on display doubt started to creep up on me. I had never considered myself poor since the natural resources of the Tire forest were usually enough to sustain me and my tribe. However, as i stood in the clothes shop i began to realise the meager gold i acquired in my lifetime might not be enough. I asked the clothes merchant for a nice gown with the cheapest price. He attempted to sell me higher priced gowns and i could tell he sensed my hesitiaton. He told me his name was Menet and proposed that if i was to take him to the ball as my date, he would give me one of his finest gowns for free. I agreed to the idea, i did not mind having him as a date and had noticed he was quite handsome for an elf. Gurval then entered the shop with a female aurelian elf. He told me he was taking her to the ball and her name was Lu. He mentioned that he promised her family he would get her a house and I asked if he had unknowlngly agreed to marry her. He disagreed but i still wondered if he had misunderstood what her family asked of him, he seemed to misunderstand a lot of things. Zyanaya then approached with that warrior Zeno from the arena fight. They seemed very cozy with each other and Zeno asked Menet to find Zyana the most amazing gown for the ball because she was so beautiful. It did not surprise me Zyanya picked a date that would brag to people about her beauty.   _______________________________________________________________________________________________________   My nervousness came back as i climbed the palace stairs with Menet on my arm. Even though my companions and i looked quite nice in our fancy clothes, i could not help but worry that i would say something stupid to one of the royals. We entered the ballroom and i was taken aback by the grandeur of the room. Menet then suggested that we dance and lead me to the dancefloor. I attempted to dance in time with the music, which was very different to what i usually danced to back home, but was clusmy in my attempts. Menet did not seem upset at my clumsiness and suggested that i follow his lead. While we danced a servant announced the entrance of King Aras and also announced the rest of the royal family as they entered. They sat at a long raised table at the end of the hall and then a servant announced that dinner was ready. My companions and i had the honour of sitting near the royal family during dinner.   The food was delicious and the wine very exquisite, and i could not help but have many glaseses of the wine. Some time passed and I noticed that Gurval and Ko Rava were talking with the King. I mustered up some courage and went to join them so i could talk with the king. Unfortunately as soon as i approached there was a bad smell in the air and the king made a joke about Lupo's smelling bad. I knew the smell had nothing to do with me but i was so embarassed, and not long after i excused myself and sat with Menet at the table. We both continued to drink and it felt like he was enjoying my company. While i sat with Menet I heard Nakah say that he figured out where the torn leyline was in Diomeda and asked Lucid to go with him to fix it, then they left.   I was not sure if it was the wine or Menet's company but i started to enjoy myself. I asked Menet to dance again and as we circled the dancefloor i felt i was starting to dance in time with the music, although i was tipsy enough by this point that i did not care how my dancing looked. However my enjoyment did not last because suddenly i heard a loud crash. I looked in the direction of the king and saw a female aurelian elf with short black hair in white robes run up to the king. She grabbed the kings sword from his waist and then stabbed him in the chest. We could no nothing but watch in shock as the king burned and became a pile of ashes.      

A close shave in an arena

We did not stay much longer at the temple because Nakah knew of another torn leyline that needed to be repaired. Roza Baze still did not trust us with the egg and decided she would accompany us when we left the temple, in order to keep an eye on the egg. The monks at the temple had studied the egg further and had came to the conclusion that the egg came from a sun dragon. I had no immediate objections with Roza Baze coming along, neither did the others, but i intended to keep an eye on her in case she decided to attack us again.   Nakah did not give us any details on where we going, he usually didn't, so we had to trust that he had some sorta plan in mind. We must have been crazy to keep stepping through Nakah's portals, considering that some of his previous portals had sent us to dangerous locations, and had also misplaced some of us on occasion. But his portals were currently the quickest mode of travel for us to get to those torn leylines. So yet again we stepped into Nakah's portal, accompained this time by Roza Baze.   ____________________________________________________________________________________________________   His portal had led us to a dimly lit room with fires burning in braziers on the wall. I could make out miscellaneous weapons hanging on the wall and sunlight was shinning through an entrance barred by a metal portcullis. There was a side door near the portcullis and I also heard what sounded like a crowd cheering in the distance. Roza Baze appeared to recognise our surroundings and mentioned that we were in an arena run by the Aurelian elves in the kingdom of Diomeda. This room was where the fighters waited before it was their turn to enter the arena and fight. I wanted to tell off Nakah for again landing us in a dangerous situation. But before i got the chance he disappeared with Gurval, Zyanya and John into another portal and they left.     The metal portcullis started to rise and then a couple of armed guards walked out of the door and approached us. The guards turned out to be Aurelian elves and had the same blue skin tone like those other group of elves at the Crystalline Fortress. It then crossed my mind that i had encountered so many other cultures during my adventures, before i had left home the only other people i had come across were green elves and dwarfs. The guards demanded that we send out two people to participate in the next fight, i got the impression they would kill us if we refused. Roza Baze voluntered to fight along with Syrus. She told us to protect the egg and then walked into the arena followed closley by Syrus. The rest of us went to join them but then the metal portcullis slammed shut in front of us, so our only option was to watch what happened.   A scared Aurelian elf stumbled out into the arena and the crowd booed at him. Then a muscled elf with golden skin strutted out into the arena and the crowd cheered, chanting the name Zeno. He spoke to Roza Baze and i got the impression they knew each other. Roza then became enraged and swung her axe into Zeno's side, wounding him. The scared elf then cast a spell on Zeno which appeared to be helping him. But then Roza Baze swung her axe into the elf's neck and he feel to the ground writhing in pain. Zeno then walked over to the elf and stomped on his head, screaming out that the elf was ruining a good fight. I was shocked that Zeno killed someone who appeared to be helping him.   I could tell Zeno was a formidable fighter and his attacks emmited a shockwave that looked like it caused harm. Syrus was able to shoot an arrow into one of Zeno's eyes which surprinsgly did not kill him. Zeno then attempted to tackle Roza Baze however she stood her ground. Syrus shot another arrow at Zeno which then allowed Roza Baze to bring Zeno to his knees. She was about to swing her axe into his neck but then he called out Alpha's name which caused her to hesitate. A loud voice called out to Roza Baze to stop and after a few seconds she let Zeno stumble away. The metal portcullis opened and both Syrus and Roza Baze came back to the room we were in.   The guards approached us again and asked for two more fighters to enter the arena. I noticed that Roza Baze was protective of Ko Rava whenever the guards approcahed us. Myself and Lucid decided to enter the arena and Gallant attempted to follow us, but then the metal portcullis slammed down again. I could hear Gallant whimpering and was happy to see that Ko Rava was comforting him. I looked around the arena and saw that the crowd was mainly made up of Aurelian elves. There appeared to be a covered seating area above the main seats and an Aurelian elf in regal clothing, with a crown on his head, was seated there. I figured this elf was more than likely the king of Diomeda.   An Aurelian elf who looked like a former solider and an Aurelian female cultist then walked into the arena. I shot an arrow at the female cultist, however my aim was off and it landed into her shoulder. She retaliated and summonded lighting to electrocute me. It caused me great pain but luckily it was not a fatal blow. Lucid then slashed the cultist with his sword however the Aurelian elf ran up to Lucid and stabbed him. I shot another arrow at the female cultist and wounded her some more. She electrocuted me again and this time it felt like it nearly killed me. The way my fights were going lately made me feel like Skipan was playing with my fate by the roll of a dice. Lucid then slashed open the cultist's gut and she fell to the ground dead. I fought through the pain and managed to cast ensnaring strike on one of my arrows, which i then shot at the Aurelian elf. The arrow hit him and then thorny vines engulfed him, punctering him in multiple places. He struggled to break free of the vines and in the stuggle tripped on the vines, which caused him to fall head first on a rock. The impact to his head musst have been fatal caused he did not get up.   The king stood up and called out to both Lucid and I, congratulating us on the fight. He asked what our names were but still managed to get my name wrong after i told him. He then said that he was throwing a ball and we were both invited. Lucid and i stumbled back to the staging area and then a couple of Aurelian elves lead myself and Lucid to a nearby infirmary for healing. Gallant was so happy to see i was okay and did not leave my side as i followed them to the infirmary.                  

A divine intervention part two

The surrounding forest faded away and then we found ourselves on a large sunlit field. The field was surrounded by rolling hills that seemed to glow golden from the sunlight. We were marching with a large armoured group of elves, i noticed they had the same blue skin tone like the group of elves back at the Crystalline Fortress in Zyniii.   A solider to the side of us stood out from the rest of the group, giving off a very confident vibe. He then turned towards us exclaming that we were marching to go fight the enemy. He looked at us intently, almost like he was looking into our very souls, and asked us where our loyalties lied. After the others gave their answer i told him my loyalties lied with my tribe, family and friends. He did not seemed satisfied wiith my answer and questioned me further, asking f i had to choose just one, what would be the honourable choice. I struggled to provide an answer, since they were all important to me and it was hard to pick just one. But the solider kept insisting, so in the end i told him i would pick my family. He acknowldged this but then responded by saying the honourable choice would have been my tribe.   The army around us dissapered and we were then standing in a throne room. A female dressed in regal clothing was seated on a raised throne in front of us, and that same solider was standing next to her. A econd later he stabbed her in the heart and before we had a chance to react the throne room disappeared. We were on grassy field again with that same solider, however he had changed and seemed older now. This time he was dressed in white robes with golden accents on the sleeves and collar. I felt a godlike aura surrounding him and figured we had been speaking to another god. The female that he had stabbed earlier appeared and then they embraced, looking lovingly at eachother. He then looked to us and said that we must remain true to ourselves and never question what we are willing to fight for. They then walked away hand in hand and floated into the clouds.   Our surroundings changed again and we were now on top of a cliff. A large cave loomed behind us and the structure of the cave looked almost like a monkeys face. We walked into the cave and then saw a Mokuna with bright yellow fur sitting on top of a rock meditating. He noticed us as we approcahed and walked over to greet us, telling us his name was Foo. He patted Gallant and then to my surprise Gallant stood on two legs and gave Foo a high five. Foo was very animated when he talked and complimented Zyanya saying he liked her style. He then clapped his hands together and his stature seemed to increase, also his build become more muscular. I realised then that Foo was a god and also noticed that we were floating amongst golden clouds. Foo then looked at us with a smirk and stated that we each seemed to be having our own sort of character development. He went on to talk about his own trauma which helped with his character development. He went on a bit more about character development and how happy he was now and then everything faded to black.   I then opened my eyes and we were back at the temple. I was still reeling from the meditation session, and the various lessons the gods had given, when Nakah came to tell us he had just finished repairing the leyline.        

A divine intervention part one

I was lucky to have survived the battle thanks to Arthom's healing powers, and both Arthom and Lucid were able to defeat the witches who had attacked us. The rest of my companions and the monks were also able to defend the temple from the attackers. I was very annoyed that i had fallen in battle so easily, despite my many years of training with my tribe, and i did not want this to become a recurring outcome.   After we had recovered from the battle Master J'fif suggested that we have another meditaton session with him. He wished for us to reflect on the gods of the pantheon and hoped that we would obtain guidance from them during the meditation. I was not sure if i would gain guidance since the only god i beleived in was the almighty Skipan, however Master J'fif did not think it woud be a problem. Gurval and Roza Baze opted out of the medidation and i noticed John had disappeared since the battle. Nakah meanwhile was continuing to repair the torn leyline in the area. I was glad the monks had become a bit more accomodating with Gallant, so he was able to sit by my side during this meditaton session. Master J'fif began the meditation and as i listened to his instructions i felt my mind begin to drift.   ________________________________________________________________________________________________   I opened my eyes and found myself in a candlelit, ornate bedroom with stone brick walls. The room felt stuffy and the smoke from the candles added to the almost suffocating atmosphere in the room. I noticed Ko Rava, Lucid, Arthom, Syrus and Gallant were also in the room with me. I then saw a woman sitting by the window, looking out with longing in her eyes. Her skin tone was a shade of purple like Roza Baze and also had similar features to Roza. Arthom then approached the woman which startled her out of her contemplative state. She looked at us apprehensively, and then asked us if we were sent by her father to make sure she did not escape again. I asked her why she was imprisoned and she said it was because her father was ashamed of her Rojikan heritage, and her fathers race, the dark elves, spurned the Rojikan. I found it hypocritcal her father was ashamed of her Rojikan heritage, but did not seem to mind it when he got with her mother. I mentioned this to her and she unfortunately got offended, which made me realise i needed to improve on my converstional skills and develop some more tact. She continued to talk about her controlling father and her family's expectations of her. As she did i felt like she was staring directly at me, as though she knew i was battling with my own family expectations. I noticed Ko Rava also looked uncomfortable when the woman talked about family expectations and it made me wonder what expectations Ko Rava was avoiding.   The woman then asked us if we would continue adventuring together to which we responded yes. Just then flames erupted from her and surrounded her like a cloak. I got the sense that we had just been speaking to a god, however before i could inquire further the walls around us began to crumble away.   The bedroom disappeared and we suddenly found ourselves in a forest with tall trees that seemed almost ancient in apperance. The foliage of the canopy overhead was very dense and limited the amount of sun shining through. I felt comfortable in this familiar surrounding and then spotted a tall man with broad shoulders leaning against one of the trees nearby. Arthom recognised him and told us that the man was Yon, who was an ancestor of clan Nariel. We approached Yon and as we began to converse with him the subject of conversation turned to clan Nariel, and their clansmen such as Ozgar and Ailil. He appeared to have a nostalgic, happy look on his face when we spoke to him about clan Nariel. He told us that Alpha laid down many paths at our feet but we had the free will to choose which one we took, and the famiiy we formed along these paths. I could see that Arthom looked sad when Yon spoke of this and Arthom told Yon that he had regrets from some of the paths he had taken. Yon then gave him words of comfort which seemed to lift the sadness from Arthom. As he looked at us he seemed less grumpy and even gave me a slight smirk. It was nice to see this side of Arthom and Zyanya even asked Yon if he had any tips on how to stop Arthom being grumpy.   Suddenly Yon started to age and then he looked like the god in that wall painting back at the temple. I then realised that we had been speaking to the god of Earth called Eoin. Eoin continued talking to us saying that things were just as complicated in the heavens now as much as they were in Mayhos. He said the companions you pick to accompany you on your journey was important. He then went to pat Gallant stating that warhounds were one of the best companions, to which i totally agreed.                            

That was too close for my liking

Once the meditation was finished we all congregated to the main entrance hall and then Roza Baze started talking about the dragon egg. She still did not trust us with the egg and insisted again that we hand it over to her. She planned to take it high up in the mountains where she would hopefully find a dragon colony to leave it with, that way it could hatch and grow amongst its own kind. Gurval suggested that we cook the egg, although i could not tell if he was serious or joking when he suggested this. I felt the same uncertainty whenever he refered to Gallant as emergancy food, i hoped he was joking whenever he said this, otherwise him and I would have a problem.   We asked Roza if she happened to know where a dragon colony was situated but she did not. She then suggested that we talk to the monks to see if they had any knowledge of the dragons. Lucky for us there was a monk at the temple called Unos who was aware of the dragons resurgence, and was happy to assist us with the dragon egg. We discussed the matter further and then Ko Rava and Gurval went with master Unos to study the egg in another section of the temple.   About an hour had passsed and then we heard Gallant barking loudly outside. We went outside and saw a giant multicoloured bridge emerging from the clouds in the sky towards the temple entrance. A large group of heavily armed elves were emerging onto the bridge and were making their way towards the temple. We then heard someeone yell out that they intended to destroy this temple dedicated to false pagan gods. We ran back into the temple and saw various monks getting ready for battle, Ko Rava and Gurval had also ran back to the main hallway after hearing all the commotion. Master J'fif then asked us if we were willling to help him defend the temple and the sacred texts stored within. We agreed to help him and then we split up to guard the various rooms housing the sacred texts.   Myself, Lucid and Arthom went to guard the texts housed in the room of Eoin. The aesthetic of the room reminded me of a druids grove and there was a large painting on the wall depecting who i assumed was Eoin, leading a charge against some cultists. A few minutes later we heard fighting in the distance and then four hooded females in black cloaks entered the room. They had large black markings around their eyes and gave off a sinister, witchy vibe. They cackled at us and then one of them drew a rune in the air which caused Lucid to go into a hypnotic trance. I went to attack them but then one cast a spell on me and i felt a massive jolt of pain. She proceeded to fire some magic projectiles at me which knocked me down, and then everything faded to black.  

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Twenty four hours had passed and unfortunately Lucid's situation had not improved. During that time I thought about the Phrat'ii ritual that Slender wanted to perform, and the soul she would be bonding with Lucid in order to save him. I knew for sure i was against the Phrat'ii killing innocents and stealing their souls. Although, for the first time in my life i had to contemplate the lines i would cross to save a friend, and i had begun to see my fellow companions as my friends. I came to the conclusion that i wanted Lucid to live, even if it meant using Phrat'ii magic to save him. Plus i figured it was better for the soul to be used to save a life, rather than giving a Phrat'ii warrior more power.   Slender informed us that she wanted to perform the ritual on Lucid that morning. I felt a majority of my companions did not object to the ritual being performed, also i had not seen any indication from Chief Bran that he would stop it. However, Gurval was definitely against the ritual and i got the impression that Arthom was against any use of Phrat'ii magic, even if it meant saving Lucid.   I went with Syrus and Zyanna to visit Lucid, when we got there Gurval was already in the room and Slender was in the corner, glaring at Gurval. I figured she was annoyed at Gurval for hindering her plans to begin the ritual. We discussed with Gurval our thoughts about Lucid's situation. I let him know when it came to my friends i would do whatever it took to save them. Gurval said he would not stop us visting Lucid, however if we tried anything else there would be a problem. Shortly after Zyanna whispered something to Gurval which caused him to suddenly bolt out of the room. I wondrerd how long Zyanna's charm would last and then Arthom came into the room, looking at us suspiciously as he entered. The vines that Syrus had cast in front of the doorway probably aroused his suspicions. At that point Lucid began coughing up blood and Arthom went over to tend to him. Seeing Lucid suffering strengthened my decision to not infere with Slender's plan to carry out the ritual.   A few minutes passed and then we heard Gurval swearing in the distance. I left the room followed by Zyanna and Syrus , last thing i wanted was a major fight with Gurval. We already had one team member hanging on by a thread and i was not even sure if Velanna was safe back in Dabh. We started walking away from the room but then Gurval caught up with us and we could see he was very annoyed. Arthom and Ko Rava had wandered over and as we tried to calm Gurval down Ailil then approcahed, and told us he had a message for us from Mura. It turned out Mura had a taken an invisibilty potion earlier and whilst we were outside arguing, Slender had peformed the ritual on Lucid with Mura's help. Mura had also left us, deciding to live a simple life as a bartender back at the Sideway's inn. I was sad to hear that she had left, but understood that she had to follow her own path.   By this stage Lucid had fully recovered and came to find us. I noticed there were dark splotches on parts of his skin and he seemed to have a slimmer build compared to before. Other than the physical differences he did not seem to have changed, but i knew only time would tell. Also i was curious to see what powers he had obtained from the soul that was now merged with his. We did not get a chance to celebrate Lucid's recovery though cause Nakah then turned up stating there was another torn leyline that needed to be fixed right away.   __________________________________________________________________________________________________________   We stepped out of the portal Nakah had summoned and found ourselves on a winding path, on top of a misty mountaintop. Snow blanketed the grounds and a swift, cool breeze blew around us. We walked along the path and eventually came upon a grand temple.We entered the temple and as we walked through the hall i saw the walls were adorned with artworks depecting various events. Along some of the walls were shelves filled with various scrolls and at the end of the hall were stairrways leading to other levels of tthe temple. The temple had a calming atmosphere and i got the sense that there was great knowledge stored within the walls. We suddenly heard the main temple doors opening and turned around to see a built, purple skinned elf walk into the temple, the same purple skinned being who had knocked Gurval into that pitt. That pale, skinny dwarf called John, who had been trapped in that pit with us, was chained to a leash which she held in her hand. I never thought i would see them again and was surprised to see them here out of all places.   I aimed an arrow at her and demanded to know what she was doing here. She told us her name was Roza Baze and that she had come for the dragon egg. I told her we did not have the dragon egg even though i knew Ko Rava currently had it hidden in her bag. Roza started walking towards us and responded that she knew we had the egg. She then held up an small orb which glowed when it was pointed at Ko Rava. I asked Roza what she wanted with the egg and she explained that even though she was sent by the Phrat'ii to find the egg, she planned to keep the egg to avoid it falling into the wrong hands. My companions and i tried to convience her that we had no ill intentions with the egg but she did not believe us.   We then heard a noise in the distance and saw a robed Mokuna walking towards us. He had a calm, wise aura bout him, the same type of aura i felt around the elders of my tribe. He told us his name was Master J'fif and that the temple was dedicated to Alpha and the Parthenon. He then asked us why we had come to the temple. Nakah told him all about the torn leylines issue and he did not seem to be suprised with this information. He advised us that he had also noticed the disturbances with the ley lines. We had a brief discussion with him about the Gods and then he suggested that we go with him to meditate. I got the impression that Roza had no intention of fighting us for the egg at that moment so it was probably safe to take some time to meditate. Plus she had not taken offence when Master J'fif had told her to stand down earlier.   Only myself, Arthom, Zyanya and Syrus went along with master J'fif to meditate whilst the rest of us hung with some of the other monks from the temple. I had hoped to have Gallant by my side when i meditated but the monks were concerned he would make a mess, so I had to leave him outside at the front entrance. We began the meditation and i tried to calm my mind, but thoughts of my tribe and family's expectations kept coming to the surface.                

Well that turned out worse than I expected

I woke from a troubled slumber feeling like i had not gotten any proper sleep, and my body ached from being tied to the pillar for so long. The Solen guard keeping a constant watch over me kept me on edge and i was also annoyed that he had my weapons. I had hoped the Solen inhabitants of Dabh were willing to look past their Lupo prejudice like Syrus, however based on my experience so far that did not appear to be the case.   The hours went by and then Syrus came to see me. He was heading to the bazaar with Ko Rava, Mura and Zyanya and offered to purchase something on my behalf since i could not go there myself. I thought this was a nice gesture, and after he gave me a brief rundown of what was available i requested that he purchase some enchanted Solen arrows for me. After he left i thought about how much our relationship had developed since my first encounter with him back in Zynii, and the fact that we had been able to find some middle ground considering the past tensions between our people. The day seemed to drag on and i felt anxious being tied to the pillar for so long with nothing to do but sit and wait. Eventually the others returned from the bazaar and told me all about their shopping experience which eased my boredem for a bit at least.   Syrus was then summoned to a private meeting in the temple, i wondered what was going to be discussed and hoped my fate here had not changed. Eventually Syrus returned from the meeting and told the guard watching over me to leave, assuring the guard that he would keep an eye on me along with my weapons. The guard left and then suddenly Mura whipped out her dagger and held it to Syrus's throat. I was shocked and wanted to intervene, but unfortunatley i could only sit back and see how this confrontation would play out. Mura demanded to know why Syrus had so much money and who was this princess that the other Solen kept reffering to. She also exclaimed that the Solen had ill plans for the dragon egg they currently had in their possesion, and that she would not let them place the soul of their warrior Kah into the dragon once it hatched.   I was suprised at how calm Syrus was whilst Mura held the dagger to his throat, and was also puzzled as to how she had obtained this information. He explained to us that he was a bodyguard for the princess, who was the niece of the Solen Pharoah. He had obtained his money by working for the princess and was sent to Zynii on a diplomatic mission for the princess. He went on say that he had no intention of going along with the Solen's plan involving Kah and the dragon egg. Mura seemed satisfied with this explanation and lowered the dagger. I also did not agree with the Solens plan and both Ko Rava and Zyanya seemed to be on the same page as me.   Ko Rava suggested that we thwart the Solens plan by stealing the dragon egg, and after a brief discussion we came up with a plan. Syrus also suggested that i go with him to join the Solen fighters and distract them from wondering where the rest of our party had gone to. Just then we noticed a lot of Solen soliders running past in a hurry. Syrus called out to a guard to find out the cause of the commotion and the guard advised us that the Pharat'ii army had arrived at the front gate. Syrus then untied me and handed me back my weapons. We went over the plan one more time and then Ko Rava, Zyanna and Mura went off to steal the dragon egg whilst myself and Syrus went to join the Solen fighters.   _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________   As Syrus and i headed towards the front gate we could see that the shield over Dabh had come down. The Solen fighters had ambushed the Pharat'ii and groups of Phrat'ii were breaking into various dwellings. The streets of Dabh seemed empty and there were no townspeople about. I gathered that majority of the Solen had evacuated sometime before the Phrat'ii had arrived. Just then i heard Mura's voice in my head saying that they had managed to steal the egg and to meet them at the front of the temple. Syrus and myself ran towards the temple and then i saw Gallant running towards me. I embraced Gallant and was so happy to see that he was safe. We then arrived at the temple and i was glad to see that Arthom, Lucid Nakah and Gurval were there and were also safe.   Now that we had the egg in our possesion we needed to get out of Dabh. However before we even had a chance to devise a way out, Warlord Kun was flying towards us and then landed in front of us barring our way. He demanded we hand him the dragon egg and i could see he was willing to kiil us to get it. Both Syrus and Mura attacked him but their blows only seemed to slow him down. Zyanya attempted to use a scroll on him but notthing happened. Arthom shapeshifted his nails into claws and slashed Warlord Kun's face, i attempted to stab him with my shortsword but he dodged out of the way. Nakah then screamed out that he was opening a portal and for us to keep the warlord distracted. The battle suddenly took a turn for the worse and Warlord Kun slashed Lucid's chest open. Mura rushed to Lucid to apply pressure to the wound but blood was still gushing out. Upon seeing my friend fighting for his life i entered into a fit of rage and wanted to kill Warlord Kun. Myself and Syrus shoot an arrow at him but both arrows landed into one of his wings. Arthom attacked him again casting infestion and Ko Rava was able to harm him with a purple flame.   By this stage Nakah had managed to open the portal. As much as i wanted to kill Warlord Kun for hurting my friend, i knew we needed to get Lucid to safety. We all managed to go through the portal which luckily led to Maya. Somehow during the chaos of the battle of Dabh, Slender had found us and jumped in the portal after us. Once we got to Maya the druids and green elves tended to Lucid wounds. Hours passed and then they told us that unfortunately the wound was too fatal and that Lucid was slowly dying. I was devestated upon hearing this news and wished that i was able to cure him. Just when all seemed lost Slender came to us and said that she had a way to save Lucid. The only catch, it involved a soul and Phrat'ii magic.          

I have a bad feeling about this-Part 2

We had started walking towards the Solen Base when we spotted Slender waiting for us. It seemed liked now would be a good time to question her since we were far enough away from the camp. Luckily Syrus also spoke Phrat'ii and offered to translate any questions we had for Slender.   After questioning Slender we learnt that she was sold into slavery when her clan was defeated by another Phrat'ii clan. She also mentioned that the Phart'ii were able to pull the soul out of a person once they died and transform it into a physical form. They would then perform a ritual to consume the soul and in doing so would absorb the powers of that soul. This magic was unique to the Phrat'ii and she did not know of any way to reverse the process. I was shocked that the Phrat'ii did this and was saddened thinking of those souls that were not able to move on. Mura then asked Gurval if he had ever particapted in these rituals, to my relief Gurval replied that he had never consumed a soul. We decided to free Slender from Lucid's service, so Syrus let Slender know she was no longer Lucid's slave.   As we neared the Solen base Mura asked if anyone had a disguise kit for me to use, being a Lupo it was unlikely i would be allowed into the base. None of us had one so i asked Syrus if he could put in a good word for me at the base. He did not think this would work and suggested that i pretend to be his captive instead. Begrudgingly i agreed as this seemed the only likely way the Solen would let me enter their base. Syrus wrapped some rope around my wrists to maintain the illusion i was his captive. Arthom then suggested that we do the same thing with Gurval, given the ammonsity between the Phrat'ii and Solen in these lands. Gurval agreed although we had to bind Gurval's tail to his body since he only had one arm. He seemed reluctant at first to release Velenna, but then let her go and asked Arthom to watch her. Binding Gurval's tail ended up restricting his movement, so Arthom had to wildshape into a large hound and drag Gurval. I couldnt help but chuckle to myself upon seeing Arthom as a large hound dragging Gurval.   We then approached the Solen base and it dawned on me the dangerous situation i was about to put myself in. As far as i knew Syrus did not wish me any harm, but there was no guarantee that these other Solen would feel the same way. The sun dome that shielded the enclosed base was huge and a stone wall encircled the base. Syrus addressed the guards at the gate and i could see them pointing angrlly to both myself and Gurval. In the end they accepted what Syrus told them and opened the gates. Somehow we were able to walk through the dome shield and then entered the Solen base. As we walked through the streets I felt uneasy not knowing what to expect from the Solen here, some even spat at me as we walked. In those moments my fear would turn to anger and it took all of my willpower to avoid striking at them. Some guards also followed from a distance keeping a watchful eye on us.   We came upon the town marketplace and then a female Solen approached Syrus. In broken commmon she told us of an establishment called the Red Rock Perch, boasting that this establishment was known in Dabh as a place where your wildest fantasies could come true. Naturally i was not allowed in so i waited outside with Syrus, Gurval and Arthom. After a an hour or so Ko Rava, Lucid and Mura come out of the venue followed by Zyanya of all people. I was glad to see she was okay after all this time. She told us that she got separated from the group whilst in the portal and was instead transported to the Fae realm. She was then able to find a riff that teleported her into Dabh and had been gambling at the Red Rock Perch ever since.   We then made our way over to a large ornate building which looked like a temple of some sorts. Syrus was able to convinance the guards to let us into this temple. A regal looking Solen entered and addressed Syrus, eyeing the rest of us with caution as she spoke. After their conversation was concluded Syrus took us outside and gave us a brief rundown of his discussion with the Solen leader. She had confirmed that the unhatched dragon egg was in their possesion and it seemed they had no desire to kill the dragon once it hatched. She and Syrus had also come up with a plan to lower the sun shield surrounding Dabh and a large group of Solen fighters would then ambush the Phrat'ii once thy entered Dabh. The Solen leader had also told Syrus that she did not fully trust me. However they would not hold me captive if i went to the front lines when the Solen fighters ambused the Phrat'ii.   Given my current circumstances i felt it was in my best interest to go along with this, and after some discussion the rest of my companions agreed to the plan. We also decided that Lucid, Arthom and Gurval would head back to Warlord Kun's camp to let him know that we found a way to lower the shield, thus ensuring the saftey of Nakah and Gallant.   Unfortunatly the Solen leader wanted me tied up to one of the stone pillars on the temple grounds until the fighting began. The guards tied me to a pillar and as i sat on the cold stone floor my thoughts drifed to my family and the home i had left behind.  

I have a bad feeling about this-Part 1

Even though the fight had been called off we had yet to escape the grasp of the Phrat'ii. Once night had fallen the largely built phrat'ii warrior, who had introduced himself as Warlord Kun, ordered his fighters to get a campsite ready. By this stage they had pulled Gurval and Velanna out of the pit. As i sat there surrounded by Pharat'ii fighters, i started to worry about how my companions and i were going to get ourselves out of this situation. Plus i was worried for Gallant because I had not seen him since our fight with the Phrrat'ii. I was also concerned that this Warlord Kun could decide to kill us at any moment, it was surprising he had not attempted to kill Syrus considering the contempt he seemed to have for the Solen.   As Warlord Kun begun to address us i wondered why he was the only Phrat'ii in the group with wings. Velena must have had similar thoughts because she asked him about his wings, to which he replied that his was able to absorb the power of the people he destroyed which was how he got the wings. Warlord Kun then touched upon his request for us to help him fight the Solen, who had a base not far from here. He asked what my thoughts were of his request, noting that since i was a Lupo i would share in his hate for the Solen. Granted i had every reason to hate the Solen, given my peoples history with them. However spending time with Syrus had made me start to question if all Solen were bad, plus my people's war with the Solen was before my time so i was not exacly keen on starting another one. I asked Warlord Kun why the Phrat'ii in this land were fighting the Solen, he responded that the Solen had arrived in the land long ago and they have been figthing with them since. He did not provide any more information which left me suspicious of his true motives.   He continued to say that a dragon with the power of the sun would soon be reborn and his people wanted to kill the dragon to get the power for themselves. The Solen currently had the unborn dragon protected in the base, which is why he wanted to kill the Solen to get to this dragon. Sensing our hestitation with killing Solen in cold blood, he suggested that we instead find a way to disable the shield currently over the Solen base. They would then infiltrate the base to get to the dragon, killing any Solen that get in their way. He then mentioned that the Phart'ii fighter Lucid had killed before had been in possesion of a soul, and that soul could be Lucid's if we helped him fight the Solen. I figured he mentioned about the soul to try and sway Lucid into helping him. Although somehow i could not see Lucid wanting to have possesion of a soul.   My companions and i decided to discuss our options in a nearby tent, out of earshot of Warlord Kun. I did not feel comfortable helping the Phart'ii kill another creature just so they could have more power, even if it would hurt Gurval going against his people. Nontheless it seemed Gurval was not a fan of his race, he kept stressing to us that we needed to get away from Warlord Kun and the Phrat'ii. He also said that his own personal experience of seeing the Phart'ii take a person's soul made him dislike his people even more. Upon hearing that the Phrat'ii took a person's soul, i was even less inclined to help Warlord Kun.   As we continued to discuss our current situation the tent flap opened and a robed female phart'ii entered. In broken common she told us she was Lucid's slave and her name was Slender. Lucid was stunned at first, not knowing what to do with this slave. Mura suggested we question the slave to obtain further information about the Phrat'ii, which i thought was a good idea. Lucid told Slender to leave and wait for us outside out of the encapment, i was not sure how much she understood but she left anyway. After much discussion Lucid came up with an idea on how we could get away from the Phart'ii. We approched Warlord Kun and Lucid told him that we wanted to scope the lay of the land before making a final decision. Warlord Kun did not seem pleased with this suggestion and then pointed to a cage which Nakah and Gallant were imprioned in. My first instinct was to run to the cage and free them both. But upon further reflection i knew there was no way we woud be able to get them out surrounded by Phrat'ii fighters. I wondered why Nakah had not freed himself along with Gallant, also how did they end up getting captured in the first place.   Warlord Kun told us that we would have until the next sunset to disable the Solen shield otherwise he would kill both Nakah and Gallant. I though it was cruel for him to give us such a short amount of time to accomplish the task. Lucid tried to persuade him to give us more time but Warlord Kun would not budge. With Nakah and Gallant's lives on the line we had no choice in the end but to agree to Warlord Kun's request. My companions and i headed towards the Solan base, with its golden dome in the distance beckoning us towards it.      

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Leaving my home to explore new lands was one of the best decisions i have ever made, even though it had felt like i was betraying my tribe and family by leaving. Prior to my departure i had spoken with my sister Elu about the doubts i had of my betrothal, and of my wish to see new lands. In the end she did not stop me when I left, but I will never forget the sadness on her face as i had walked away. I have experienced much on this journey so far, and have met so many interesting people, that i do not regret the decision i made. Hopefully when the time comes i will be able to make my family and tribe understand why I did what i did.   After my companions and i returned to the town of Maya, Chief Bran proceeded to put on a grand feast in our honour. This feast was grander then the last, with such an abundance of delicious food and ale. Moments after we had begun to fill our bellies and quench our thirst Chief Bran called a toast, proclaiming my companions and i the dragon slayers. He also proclaimed us as allies of clan Nariel and we would always be welcome in the lands of Maya. I was touched by Chief Bran's toast, never expecting to be welcomed into another community outside of my tribe. Sitting amongst my companions i felt that we were starting to come together as a team, despite our various backgrounds.   Once Chief Bran had finished his toast to us i turned to Gurvel to inquire about the person he currently had wrapped up in his tail. For some reason he had kept a very close eye on her and had not unwound her from his tail since we left the Emerald Heart. When i asked him who this person was he answered she was a dirty Victri, but did not elaborate further. I had never heard of a Victri before and curious to know more, i then introduced myself to her. She told me her name was Velanna, then she asked who Gurvel was and what our reason was for travelling to Maya. I told her briefly about Nakah, that Gurvel was part of my team and that i had not seen a Victri before. She said her kind were generally a secluded race who tended to be mistaken for elves, and then asked me if i could persuade Gurvel to free her from his tail. I was unable to persuade Gurvel to let her go, guess he really hates Victri.   Glancing around the table i then spotted Arthom and his friend Celia, a female druid from the Emerald Heart, getting very cosy with each other. I commented about this to Ko Rava, and she responded that she was surprised there was someone in the world who actually liked Arthom. I laughed and then continued to converse with Ko for a little longer. I enjoy Ko Rava's company and can see us becoming good friends as time goes on. Afterwards i spoke with Lucid for a bit and during our conversation he mentioned that he had grown up on the streets. He said it was a hard life and did not like talking about it, so i did not press him further. I can tell he is a kind person who has dealt with a lot of hardship in his life. He also seems very down to earth and i find he is easy to get along with.   Some time later Nakah shot fireworks into the air to grab our attention. He then announced that he was going to portal my companions and I to a new land the next day to deal with some more corrupted Leylines. Recalling what happened the last time we stepped through his portal, i told Nakah to make sure he did not lose any of us the next time we used his portal. I also told him to make sure that Gallant makes it through the portal with the rest of us. He looked confused at first, saying he did not initially account for a warhound in his portal calculations but it would not be a problem in the end. I did not feel confident with his answer but hoped for the best. I then retired to my quarters, making sure to get a good rest for the next part of our journey.   ___________________________________________________________________________________________________   The next day my companions and i bid farewell to Chief Bran, Lonan, Ozgar and Ailill, not knowing when we would see them all again. We then stepped into the portal that Nakah had opened, it took a bit of persuasion to get Gallant to step into the portal with me. There was the usual roaring wind and flashing lights that we had encountered previously whilst portal travelling. After some time we exited out of the portal only to find ourselves falling from a great height, and then we landed into a deep pit in the ground. I came to moments later, grateful to have survived the impact of the fall and wondering what went wrong. To add insult to injury i saw that Zyanya was not with us and had probably gotten sent somewhere else. Why couldn't that incompetent monkey get his portals working probably. I was glad that at least Gallant had made it through the portal with the rest of my companions.   Looking around the room i could tell we were in an underground prison cell, rock surrounded us and there was a thick wall of metal bars on one side. I could not see any doorways out of the prison cell either. Two guards who looked to be of the same race as Gurvel stood just outside of the metal bars. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light I saw a figure sitting in the corner of the room looking at us all fearfully. I wondered if it was his prison cell, judging by his dishevelled appearance it looked like he had been here a while. I then suggested that Gurvel go and speak with guards, thinking they would be able to understand each other. Gurvel replied that he did not know their language even though he was a Phrat'ii like them. Then to my surprise Arthom announced he could understand Phratt'ii and attempted to speak to the guards. His attempt failed however and the one of the guards hit Arthom with its tail.   Mura then suggested that we tie together all the rope we currently had amongst us. We would then give it to Syrus who would fly out of the pit and throw down the rope for us to climb. We started to execute the plan and it seemed like it was going to work, but then Syrus flew back down and told us there were guards standing around the top of the pit. I was worried that we wouldn't find a way out of the prison when suddenly we started floating up out of the pit. We landed on the ground next to the pit opening and saw that we were surrounded by a large group of heavily armed Phrat'ii. Before i had a chance to assess the situation Lucid threw a flask of oil at some Phrat'ii in front of him and then Ko Rava cast a spell which caused the oil to catch alight engulfing them in flame. Upon seeing this the rest of the Phrat'ii then went to attack us. Mura and Arthom were able to wound some of the Phrat'ii and immediately after Arthom wildshaped into a large Warhound. I then shot an arrow through the eye socket of one of the Phrat'ii killing it instantly.   The remaining Phrat'ii parted and then an extremely muscley, purple skinned female elf started strutting towards us. As she got closer she broke into a run then went to attack Arthom. He was able to dodge the attack but her great axe slammed on the ground in front of him and the shock wave from the impact caused him some harm. Immediately after this she then knocked Gurvel , and Velanna who was still held by his tail, back into the pit. Mura, Ko Rava, Lucid and Arthom each attacked this purple skinned elf but the attacks did not appear to be slowing her down. I could see that the Phrat'ii were starting to back away from us but we still had to deal with this muscle bound elf. All of a sudden a large Phrat'ii in ceremonial armour with wings protruding out of his back appeared. He ordered the rest of the Phrat'ii and the purple elf to stop fighting us. He then spoke to us in common tongue stating that my companions and i appeared to be great warriors, and then he asked us for our help to fight against the Solen.  

Battling the guilt

Chief Bran had told us it would take about a week to get the caravans prepared for the trek to the druids grove, the Emerald Heart. In this time i explored the woods surrounding Maya, practised my archery and spent a lot of time strengthening the bond with my wolfhound companion which i had decided to call Gallant.   The week went by and then we were on our way to the Emerald Heart, which was in the deepest parts of the Tal'ahm woods. The trek took a few days so my companions and i talked about various things to pass the time. We even discussed Gurvel's preference for milk, he loved milk so much that even if the milk was sour he would not be able to tell the difference. Also Arthom kept getting annoyed by Gurval whenever Gurval shouted Arthom's name to get his attention. The funny thing was Gurval did not seem to notice the annoyance on Arthom's face and would continue to call out to him throughout the trek. At one point Ko Rava made a slight joke about Arthom's size and Arthom retaliated by casting a spell which caused fleas to crawl all over her. Syrus gave Ko Rava some ointment to help with the flea bites and i offered her a drink from my flask to distract her from the pain. Myself and Zyanya reprimanded Arthom for picking on Ko like that since Ko was a kid, plus i felt protective of my Leishu companion. That being said I should probably stop occasionally offering her alcohol.   As we were getting closer to the Emerald Heart the forest canopy was getting thicker limiting the sunlight that was streaming through. Growing up surrounded by trees I felt at ease in these surroundings. For some reason Gurvel forgot where we were going and asked Arthom if he knew. Not satisfied with Arthom's answer he asked me and I responded that we were going to Arthom's homeland of the Emerald Heart where Arthom's friends were. Gurvel shouted out to Arthom that he was surprised Arthom had friends which got me wondering if Arthom's friends were as grumpy as he was.   We arrived at the Emerald Heart and my first thought was how beautiful it was. The walls and roofs of the dwellings were made out of thick tree roots. Small trees sprouted from the rooftop and their various branches stretched towards the sky. Also small streams of water wound around some of the dwellings. We were greeted by Arthom's master Illyana Slatara and ss she lead us towards the centre of the grove she spoke briefly about the inhabitants. Some were druids who were primal shifters and the other druids were dreamwalkers who had the important task of keeping the nightmares at bay. She also talked briefly about some of the druids worshipped the almighty god Skipan. Gurval made an offhand comment about how silly Skipan sounded, which prompted Arthom to tell off Gurvel about being disrespectful of his fellow druids beliefs in his home. Ko Rava commented further and then Arthom started arguing with her. Ko Rava and Gurval always seemed to get on Arthom's nerves. Illyana then slammed her staff on the ground and the sound of a high pitched bird screech filled the air. I got the impression Master Illyana was someone you did not want to anger.   She then introduced to the dreamwalker called Master Tevitavi, who had an idea of how my companions and i could help with the problems they were experiencing in this grove. He suggested that Ailill put us to sleep and then our dreams would lure the creatures that were causing the nightmares. Then once the creatures were focused on our dreams the dreamwalkers would vanquish them. I was a bit apprehensive at the idea of being used as bait, but then Ailill assured us he would wake us up if it got too dangerous. After some contemplation my companions and I agreed go ahead with the plan. They took us to an empty dwelling in the grove and then Ailill proceeded to put us to sleep. As i started to fall asleep i saw Gallant come sit next to me to protect me from any harm while i slept.   ____________________________________________   Shortly after i found myself standing on sunny grassland. There was a city in the distance and just ahead of me was Syrus. What looked like a large Phoenix loomed above Syrus and i heard it say to Syrus 'I know you will find your way'. Whatever the Phoenix had said to him seemed to make him sad, so i went over to comfort Syrus and placed my hand on his shoulder. He flinched at my touch telling me not to touch him and asked what i was doing here. I told him i did not know why i was here and or who had sent me here. Next minute we heard a loud wolf howl and the head of the Phoenix changed into a wolf. Pale moonlight seemed to blend in with the bright sunlight around it. It looked to me and asked why i had left my tribe and the people who knew me best. I responded that I needed to discover who I was outside of my tribe. It proceeded to say i was nothing without my tribe and i was cruel to leave my betrothed. The guilt that i had been feeling at leaving my tribe then clouded my thoughts, the same guilt that left me at a loss for words everytime i tried to write a letter to my family.   The wolf head and its bird body started to twist at weird angles and then it turned into an enormous, grotesque, gangly looking bird with elongated talons, sunken black eyes and a long sharp beak. A rusty crown sat atop it's head and i wondered if this was one of the nightmare creatures that were plauging the Emerald Heart. The creature then swiped its talons at us but luckily we were able to dodge the attack. I then shot an arrow into the creature's chest and moonlight started streaming out of the wound, Syrus also wounded it with an arrow. The creature then attempted to slam its crown at Syrus who flew out of the way, and a second later he dived down slashing the crown in half. Bright white light streamed out of the crown engulfing the creature and then the creature was gone. I felt as though a heavy burden was lifted off my shoulders and was glad to have fought alongside my Solen companion instead of against him. I gave him a high five and this time he did not flinch. A Phoenix and Wolf then appeared in the sky standing side by side. I sensed a strong godly aura surrounding them both and felt that it was almighty Skipan looking down at me. I had a feeling the Phoenix was Syrus's god and thought if both our gods could stand side by side without any animosity there was hope for Syrus and i.   I woke up to a chaotic scene and there were with sounds of a commotion outside. I could see Mura and Ailill fighting a bunch of small, sickly looking baby dragons. The small dragons had no eyes and thick green dust trailed in the air after them. I turned to my side and saw Gallant had also locked his jaws on one of the small dragons and was thrashing it about on the ground. In the commotion some of the dust got into Ko Rava eyes which caused her aim to be off and she accidentally shot Syrus in the chest with her arcane bolt. Luckily Gurval was able to heal him and then i shot an arrow at one of the dragons with my bow which killed it instantly. My companions and I vanquished the remaining baby dragons and afterwards I noticed someone else had been in the room with us. She looked similar to an elf except for the small fangs and bloodshot eyes. I could see she was avoiding us so i did not make any attempts to talk to her.   After the commotion in the grove had died down Master Illyana informed us that those creatures were children of the nightmare dragons. Thanks to our help the nightmare dragons had been defeated and balance had now been restored in the Emerald Heart. She also mentioned that the druids who were trapped in the prolonged sleep were waking up. I was glad that we were able to help the druids, now we just needed to solve the problem of those pesky Leylines.

A cheeky Sprite and a warhound

The next part of our journey led us to the town of Maya, situated in the territory of Nariel. Being from clan Nariel our green elf companions Osgar, Ailill and who i thought was named Osgrim, but is actually called Lonan, had invited us to come join them on their clans yearly hunt. Walking through the streets of Maya i could sense the town was a place of peace and could see it was thriving despite its seclusion. A breathtaking monument of the clan's ancestor Eoin was built into the mountain and it was as if you could feel the presence of Eoin in the town and the surrounding mountains. I was amazed by the sheer size of the monument as we made our way towards the buildings surrounding this breathtaking structure.   We were welcomed by Osgar's father, Chief Bran Nariel who ran the Nariel clan and its territory including the town of Maya. Chief Bran then arranged a grand feast full of plentiful game and mead. As we were filling our bellies with the delicious food we conversed amongst ourselves and members of the Nariel clan. At one point Gurvel asked me over along with some of the others and offered to share his keg of milk with us.   After some time we spoke with Chief Bran regarding the situation with the torn Leylines. Chief Bran explained he, along with his clan members, had been investigating the torn Leylines phenomenon. Ailill then revealed to us he was a dreamwalker and that prior to coming to Zyniii he had been working with the druids at the Emerald Heart druids grove in Tal'ahm. Whilst he was there he had vanquished a dragon that had been fueled by nightmares. He then went on to talk about how some of the druids there were experiencing constant nightmares and some were caught in a deep slumber from which they could not wake. He believed the dragon he vanquished was linked to this problem and that the dragons of old were returning. Arthom also disclosed to us that his friend was one of the druids that had not woken from their deep sleep and said that even though Ailill had defeated the dragon in the Emerald Grove the problem was not resolved.   Ailill then requested if Chief Bran could arrange to send a party to the Emerald Heart to see if the situation had improved. Myself and the rest of my companions agreed to join this party back to the Grove. The Chief said he would be happy to send the party but wanted us to assist him with a matter first. He advised that he had received reports of dragon sightings in the local woods of Nariel and wished for our team to investigate this further. Myself and my companions agreed to help with this thinking maybe it could be linked to the Mayhos Leylines issue. The next morning myselff, Osgar, Aillil Arthom, Lucidius, Gurvel, Mura and Syrus ventured to the nearby woodlands of clan Nariel to see what we could discover abort these reported dragon sightings. We ended up splitting into two groups for the trek with myself, Arthom and Lucidius being led by Osgar whilst Mura, Gurvel and Syrus would explore a different section of the woods with Ailill. Arthom also summoned a bird which he could communicate with to accompany Ailill's group in case either group needed to reach each other.   Osgar, Arthom, Lucid and myself then began our trek through the deeper part of the forest, the overhanging canopy of the forest seemed to shut out a lot of the light. As we ventured deeper the fauna around us seemed to be glowing and there seemed to be a change in the air which made me feel uneasy and slightly cold. Suddenly we heard a flapping of wings in the distance, thinking it could be the dragon we proceeded in that direction. Never seeing a dragon before i was excited to see what it would be like but at the same time was nervous of the harm it could do to us. As we were walking we then spotted a glimmer in the nearby bushes, upon further inspection we discovered it was a bag of gold. Focused on the task at hand Arthom told us to ignore the gold for now and to continue looking for the dragon. We agreed with Arthom and continued to look for the dragon, although i could have sworn Lucidius looked back at the gold with a slight longing.   I then happened to hear a rustling up ahead and saw in the distance what looked to be a male Lupo with yellow fur. I called out to him using a Lupo greeting but he appeared to not hear me and continued on his way focused on whatever it was he appeared to be hunting. I decided to follow the Lupo thinking he might know something about the reported sightings of the dragons in the woods. After some time the Lupo stopped in front of a cave, i approached the Lupo attempting to make conversation when it suddenly turned into a yellow coloured Sprite. Giggling mischievously at me it then flew off before I had a chance to question it. Cursing myself for falling under the whim of a Sprite i then realised i was separated from my group and had no idea where they could be in these deep woods. As i stood there contemplating my next move i heard a howl coming from inside the cave. I decided to venture into the cave to investigate further and discovered a large Warhound with bright yellow, almost golden hair. It stood in a defensive stance growling softly at me. I slowly approached the warhound with my arms held upright saying in soft soothing tones that i meant it no harm, occasionally stopping in my tracks when it would emit a low growl. Eventually the warhound let me approach it and I was able to stroke its head. Its eyes seemed to shine a bright blue for a second and then i felt a connection with the warhound. My thoughts strayed to Arthom and Lucidius wondering if i would ever find them in these woods. The warhound seeming to hear my thoughts then sniffed the air and ran off . I ran after it making sure to keep up.   After running through what seemed like endless forest the warhound and myself stumbled into what looked to be a Sprite grove, only to find my companions and to my surprise Ko Rava and Zyanya there. They were accompanied by a creature that looked excatly like one of the creatures that had stepped out of the portal back at the Crystalline Fortress. I asked Ko Rava where her and Zyanya had been this whole time to which she replied they had been travelling through foreign woods for what seemed like weeks and then a portal had opened up into this grove. It was then that I noticed a portal in the grove and in front of the portal was a large dragon. I looked at the creature in awe, its large wings looking similar to that of a dragonfly. Fur covered parts of its body and it had green scales. Standing in front of the dragon with their weapons raised were what looked like humanoid versions of the warhound sitting near me, it seemed they were guarding the dragon from the rest of us.   Ailill and Arthom then questioned the dragon asking if it knew anything about the torn Leylines or the nighmares the druids we're encountering in the Emerald Grove. I was surprised when the dragon seemed to understand what they were saying and that i could understand it's response. The dragon, who I had found out later was called Leamhan, said it had nothing to do with with the torn Leylines or the nightmares the druids were experiencing. It also said that more of his kind were returning to the world and that we would have to learn to live with the dragons again or be destroyed. It went on to say that it had created the humanoid warhounds and would continue to create more of these creatures that it considered its children.   After this revelation the dragon then flew away leaving his so called children. Thinking they might go through the portal Nakah suddenly appeared out of nowhere and closed the portal, leaving this new race of warriors in the woods. After a brief glimpse our way this new group walked off into woods, i wondered if we would ever see them again. The creature that had accompanied Ko Rava and Zyanya stayed with our party, guess we would have to figure out how to get it back to where it came from. As we began to make preparations to return to Maya to report to Chief Bran what we had seen, i noticed the golden haired warhound had not left my side. It appears i have made a new friend and am looking forward to forming a close bond with this new companion. Now I just need to figure out what to name it.    

Ale with a twist of frog

My companions and i stumbled out of Nakahs makeshift portal into the Sideways Inn, feeling uneasy i then proceeded to vomit on the floor. As I gathered my wits about me i noticed that Ko Rava and Zyanya had not stepped out of the portal with the rest of my companions. Concerned for their safety i then questioned Nakah if he knew of their whereabouts, since it was his portal we just travelled through. Nakah responded saying they had not come with us in the first place, i hoped nothing bad had happened to them.   I glanced around the room and saw various groups of elves and dwarfs drinking merrily. There was also a group of elves in the middle of the room dancing to a catcy tune. Spotting both my dwarf and blue scaled lizard companions i recalled i did not know their names and thought now was a good time to rectify this. My dwarf companion told me his name is Arthom and my blue scaled companion said his name is Gurvel. I also had a chat with Mura and discovered that her and Zyanya had grown up together. She also told me the blue skinned beings i had seen back at the Crystalline Fortress in Zyniii were called Aurelian elves. She went on to say she did not know much about that particular group but is aware that they have shady dealings with the bartender there.   I then spoke with my Solen companion whose name turned out to be Syrus and he asked me why i had been staring at him back at the Crystalline Fortress. I explained that i was slightly alarmed when i first saw him because during my childhood i was told stories of my people's war with the Solen, which lead me to have a slight mistrust of the Solen people. I continued saying that I wished to start our relationship off on a good foot and not let those stories influence my judgement of him as a individual. Upon hearing this he seemed to accept my explanation and it appeared that we were starting to get along well. That was until we got into a disagreement about the Solen-Lupo war. I could see how important Syrus's religious beliefs were to him, so for the sake of maintaining a good relationship during our journey i suggested we dropped the matter, accepting that we both had different viewpoints of this war. Hopefully this won't become an issue during our travels, although it annoyed me that he had totally disregarded how many Lupo had been slain by Thorah's Solen followers. Religion has never been that important to me but when it comes to my tribe and people i will do whatever it takes to defend them.   Looking around i saw the bartender of the Sideways inn and figured he might know something about the torn Leylines or random portals opening up. Myself, Syrus, Mura and Arthom made our way over to the bartender and he introduced himself as Lottodad squire. He was quite built for a dwarf and was a very cheerful dwarf. He told us about how the Sideways Inn was a family business and that he brewed the local ale there called Squires smile ale. I could tell he was very proud of this establishment along with his brew, even proposed a business deal to import Squires smile ale into Zyniii. We then asked him if had ever come across any strange phenomenons recently at the inn. He told us that a couple of decades ago a gateway of some sorts had opened up in the Sideways inn and a bunch of creatures they had never seen before had stepped out. He also recalled that one of these creatures that looked like a red skinned female demon with horns had, through the use of magic and charm, seduced his daughter Franny.   We then decided to go have a chat with Franny to get more information about this demon, by this stage Lucid and Gurvel had joined us. Upon approaching Franny i could see she had a sense of longing about her and seemed very reserved when we attempted to talk to her. However she seemed comfortable with Gurvel and after opening up to him we found out she was an alchemist like her grandfather Frangan and that she had been very sad since her love affair with the demon had ended. She had been working on a potion that would detect spirites who would be able to open a portal back to her demon lover. She had been afraid to test it on her own and was pleased when Gurvel offered to test the potion with her. She sent Gurvel and Arthom down to her laboratory in the basement to fetch the potion and Lottodad squire called out to them to grab a keg of his Squires smile ale while they were down there. A few moments passed and they returned with the keg and what appeared to be the potion. Before Franny and Gurvel could test the potion Lottodad squire came over insisting we all have another drink of his ale which he drew from the keg Gurvel had brought up. Everyone except Gurvel took a swig, seemed Gurvel had thing for milk beverages only.   I had only taken a few sips when Arthom started shrinking down in size till he was no bigger than a mouse. Before i had a chance to react Mura and Lucidius then began to break out in song and dance. Stunned beyond disbelief i was about to ask Franny and Lottodad what had happened when i noticed they were getting bigger and the bar seemed to be getting higher above me. It was only when I heard myself croaking that i realised i was a frog. Next minute I could see Gurvel grab me and put me next to the shruken Arthom on the bar. I was trying to speak but all that seemed to come out was croaking sounds. Being a druid Arthom was able to communicate to me that while Gurvel and him were in Franny's laboratory Gurvel's tail had knocked over a bunch of vials filled with liquid into the kegs. I then started arguing with Arthom saying he should have kept an eye on Gurvel in the laboratory when next minute Gurvel puts a mug on top of us, mumbling something about wanting to keep us safe.   Not knowing how long the effect was going to last i figured the first thing i needed to do was get the mug off me. I was able to jump up high enough to knock the mug on its side. Hopping out of the mug i looked around to see what the current situation was. Even though it was hard to make out exactly what was happening through my small frog eyes i could tell that chaos had insued in the inn, seemed like everyone had drunken from the contaminated keg. After some time the effects of whatever it was that had caused me to shapeshift wore off and as i returned to my normal size I could hear Nakah saying that he had only needed to recalibrate his googles and now was able to fix the tear in the Leyline at the Sideways Inn.   Still reeling from the experiences of being a frog Gurvel then gathered myself, Arthom, Lucidius, Mura and Syrus round a table and used his cloak as a tablecloth. It was then i noticed he only had one arm and wondered what the story was of how he lost his arm. He then suggested that we all go round telling each other why we were following Nakah and going on this journey as a way to get to know each other better. Even though i was annoyed at him for knocking the vials into the keg I could tell he was a simple minded fellow who seemed like a nice guy. Arthom did not want to share his reason saying his business was own, i had a feeling under his gruff exterior there was a soft side. Lucidius disclosed that he had lost his family at a young age and was moving from town to town seeking companionship and Mura wished to learn more about alchemy. Gurvel was told by his master to follow a monkey and to kill bad guys in the name of his god Alpha. Syrus then shared his reason which unfortunately had something to do with sailing across the seas initially to kill the leader of the Lupo at the time that were hunting his people. Far as I knew my people were not hunting the Solen, I could see it was going to be a constant battle to stay on good terms with Syrus.   Lottodad squire came over and offered us all a bed for the night saying we would always be welcome at the Sideways Inn. As I lay in bed contemplating what had happened so far i was excited to see where our journey would take us next.

And so the fun begins

Walking through the streets of the city of Zyniii i could not help but look in awe at the wonders of this amazing city. Everywhere i turned the sights and sounds engulfed my senses and peaked my curiosity. A sign for the Crystalline Fortress grabbed my attention and as i stepped through the doors i was blown away by the decor of the place, from the beautiful stained glass ceiling features to the multiple braziers filled with overflowing crystals.   I proceeded to the bar and and asked the bartender for the most exotic drink they had. The bartender called out to someone called Mura who then proceeded to make me a Firewhiskey. I gulped down the drink only to have flames coming out of my mouth a minute later. I tried to hide my embarassement whilst the bartender and a group of what looked like blue skinned elves laughed. As i stood there coughing on the smoke from the flames i overhead the bartender denying someone a drink. The bartender was pointing to a sign on the wall behind the bar saying the person was under the drinking age for a Leishu. Having never met anyone of Leishu descent before i was intrigued by their appearance. Their body was covered in fur like me, however their coat was a vibrant pink and black colour. They were slightly shorter then me and i got the vibe that they could hold their own in a fight if the occasion called for it.   I introduced myself and she told me her name was Ko Rava. I then offered to buy her a drink, i figured since she was old enough to go to a tavern there would be no harm in getting her a drink. The bartender would not let me get a drink for her so i ordered myself two drinks instead, thinking i could slip the second one to Ko Rava. My attempt utterly failed and the glass fell out of my hand as the contents poured all over Ko Rava. I felt so bad and aplogized to Ko Rava who luckily was not mad at me. The bartender looking at us with annoyance then took our photo and placed the photo onto the wall of shame, next to a photo of a dwarf who looked like he had been through some stuff. I had hoped that my first time in a city tavern would have started off better. After a brief chat Ko Rava excused herself to talk to someone at the end of the bar about getting into a famous academy for wizards.     I sat by the bar for a bit and then an elf with golden skin walked through the door, her golden skin appeared to be glowing brightly. When she entered i thought i could hear soft ethereal music playing. The only elves I had seen back home were green elves. Curiosity getting the better of me i went and sat at her table asking her how she made her skin glow, thinking it might be some sort of spell. She responded condescendingly asking me how i had fur and became me. Worried that i upset her i explained that elves with glowing golden skin were not common in my homeland and this was the first time venturing away from my tribe. She explained that she had always been able to make her skin glow naturally and told me her name was Zyanya. After telling her of my experience at the bar, including my failed attempt at sneaking a drink to Ko Rava , she then offered to buy us drinks including one for Ko Rava. It turns out she knew Mura and had formed a close bond with her in the past.   Gazing around the room i noticed the same dwarf from the picture on the wall in conversation with what appeared to be a large humanoid lizard with blue scales. As eyes continued to scan the room they fell upon a green feathered Solen at the bar ordering food. Suddenly all those stories that I had heard from my childhood of the evil Solen came into my head. However as i continued to gaze at the Solen mixed emotions ran through me, I knew based on what I had been told that I should not trust them but looking at Solen now i did not feel threatened. The war with the Solen had happened a while back, maybe they were not as bad any more.   Then Ko Rava and Zyanya came back to the table accompanied by a green elf. He introduced himself to me and told me his name was Lucidius. After a brief chat with Lucidius the four us then made our way over to a table where there were a group of green elves. Their names were Ozgar, Ailil and Ogrin. After chatting for some time i discovered that Ozgar had spent some time in my homeland of Tal'ahm and had even ventured in the lands near the Tire woods. It was a nice surprise to find someone in this big city who had travelled in my homeland.   Suddenly the air in the middle of the room seemed to ripple and out of nowhere a green portal opened up. Two ugly looking giant green skinned creatures with jutting teeth ran out of of the portal. One of the creatures had a beard and a small bird of some sorts sat on it shoulders , the other was bald with a large burn scar on one side of its face. We all stared at these two creatures not knowing what to make of them and then a monkey with short green hair walked up to the creature with the face scar, demanding to know what they were doing here. Next minute the creature swung his axe and beheaded the monkey without hesitation. The bar stuff, the blue skinned elves and the group that were with the monkey ran out of the tavern in a panic. All that remained was Ozgar, Ailil, Ogrin, the dwarf, the large blue scaled lizard, the Solen, Ko Rava, Lucidius, Zyanya and myself.   I stood there in shock taking in what had just happened, but it was not long before my rage started to build and i wanted to make these creatures pay for what they did. I shot an arrow at them but unfortunately my arrow only grazed the side of the face of the creature with the burn scar. In that moment i regretted my decision to drink since it had affected my aim. The others also attacked the creatures causing them a lot of harm and the large blue lizard was able to grapple the axe off one of the creatures. Ailil then screamed out that we needed to push the creatures back into the green portal. All of us then helped Ailil to push the creatures back into the portal. A monkey similar in appearance to the monkey from before then appeared and spoke a spell of some sorts which closed the portal. I found out this monkey's name is Nakah and that he is a Mokuna.   After we caught our breath Nakah then gathered us together and told us the portal and the creatures we had just faced were from outside our realm and that what had just happened had something to do with Leylines. He then jumped into a brief explanation of what Leylines were, from what i could gather of his explanation the Leylines of another realm had been corrupted and because of this it was affecting our world. He then mentioned something about his counterpart trying to master travel through different realms although he lost me at this point.   The green elf Ozgar then told us that himself along with Ogrin and Ailil had come to Zyniii at the behest of Ozgar's father to obtain more information about the portals and the Leylines. They had found a portal on their travels which they had thought lead to a fairy real but then discovered that was not the case and had also come to the conclusion there was something up with the Leylines of Mayhos. They asked the rest of us gathered there if we would help them with the corrupted Leyline phenomenon in Mayhos, their next stop taking them to Tal'ahm. Nakah then suggested that we should visit the Sideways inn in Tal'ahm and could portal us all there with his magic.   After making this suggestion Nakah then asked us, including Mura who had walked back into the tavern, if we wanted to join the green elves on this noble quest. He believed it was in all of our destinies to be a part of this quest and solve the problem of the corrupted Mayhos Leylines. The others all agreed to join the quest and so did i, ready to embrace my destiny with my new group of travellers, thinking to myself it was funny how the first part of this quest led back to where i had started.  

A journey begins with a single step

I awake to the sweet music of the birds chirping and shortly after step outside to bask in the warmth of the sun's rays filtering through the forest canopy surrounding my home. The comforting faces of my fellow tribesmen greet me as i start my day amongst the beautiful scenery of the Tire woods. Yet the many sights and sounds that would usually bring me daily joy now only seem to bring forth a bitter-sweet feeling. I have been wrestling with a choice for a while now and i know whatever decesion i make will change the course of my life.   The elders of my tribe have brought forward the suggestion for me to marry a young warrior named Takoda from the Sune tribe. They beleive the marriage will help us to build an alliance with this neighbouring tribe. My family agree with the elders and we have received word from the Sune that they also support the marriage. Takoda seems a good man and during the times that our two tribes have met i have enjoyed his company.   My tribe and family are very important to me which is why i try to always uphold the traditions of my tribe and to do what i can to help it prosper. However, lately i have had this desire to see what lies beyond my homeland and to forge new experiences outside of my tribe. I can't help but feel that if I choose to marry Takoda i will never get the chance to venture outside my homeland and a part of me would always regret that i did not take the chance to make this dream a reality.   That is why I know now that i cannot marry Takoda, that i need to take that first step on my journey of discovery instead and see what lies beyond the Tire woods. I never wanted to disappoint my tribe and family, but I must do what feels right. I can only hope that they will forgive me in the end.
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Character
World
Mayhaos
Author
Melsterious
Publication Date
26 Mar, 2024
Creation Date
26 Mar, 2024
Last Update Date
26 Mar, 2024
Visibility
Public
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