Kaelidascope [Multicross]

[Kerashana]

A/N: WHAT WHAT! A fic that isn't a Worm fic? Well, I do hope you all enjoy this, it's something I wrote, and then put on the back burner for the rewrite, which has just started. I found it was rather fun, and feel like posting as I finish chapters this time. By jove! I think I have something!

A/N 2: This is a note for people who have seen my recent posts in my snippets thread (9/21/2023) Skittle is a branch off of this, but not for a bit. You'll know when, and I think it will be worth it, maybe? Hopefully. I am still working on Skittle, by the way, it's just secondary.

A/R 1: Only constructive criticism. No one ever wants to hear 'This is terrible.' with no context. It's also rude.
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Edit: So, I forgot to work in a description so here's the Protag.

Vaela is a lithe young woman, an elf with long ears and bright blue eyes. Dark brown hair falls in loose curls, framing a thin heart-shaped face. She had fair white skin that still holds a fading bronzing from many years spent in the sun. She has a modest bust, and a thin waist, with visible muscle tone.
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I woke to the feeling of being wet, and the sound of lapping waves; the sun beating down on me. I… I remember-

"How curious." The words interrupted my thoughts, my muddled mind. The voice that spoke was female and… somehow cold. "You are not the usual castaway I find on my shores. Tell me, Girl. What is a Fairy doing here?"

Blinking the sun out of my eyes, I looked around and found the speaker. She had dark sun-kissed skin, black hair, and eyes, and she was dressed in a light and airy robe… it didn't cover much.

"Uh? N-ot Fey… Elf." I got out through my aching head and dry throat.

"Interesting…" She muttered under her breath. Then she came over helping me stand up. "Very interesting. Let's get you inside, and looked over."

After sitting me down, on a bench looking out over a garden filled with animals, she left and came back with a cup of water.

"What do you know of magic?" She asked me as I drank.

"Not very much." I mumbled, "Just that I'm innately magical? I… was supposed to start learning in a few months… before- before everyone died." The monsters- the world dissolving.

"Hmm." The woman hummed in return, then she asked, "Would you like to learn?"

Magic… hadn't helped anyone against those… things… except… I was alive, and it certainly wasn't divine intervention… So magic? "Yes, very much."

I had always wanted to learn. Magic was, after all, magical.

"Good. I am Κίρκη, and this is my island Aeaea." The woman stated.

"Ah, I'm Vaela, it is good to meet you?" I replied, only to have her give me a sharp frown.

"Master. You will address me as, Master." And so… my years of study under Κίρκη began, and only afterward would I realize how much of my memory was being repressed. By her? By me? I couldn't say.

During those years I learned many things. I had an innate talent for Mysteries, but only a mere eighty magic circuits. I had some undefined connection to the Fey. And most importantly, Master was harsh. She did not accept failure, nor was she kind.

But I learned a great deal from her. I learned how to shape and weave Mysteries. I learned how to heal, to some degree. I learned the basics of creating magic items, Mystic Codes… and potentially Noble Phantasms. And I even learned some herbcraft and potion-making.

Then one day, it all came crashing down. I was cleaning the living area when I found myself frozen, wrapped in a cage of Master's power as she pulled out an ornate knife. "Well girl, you have been a fine help to me, and I have learned much from studying you. I will remember your time here fondly, but it must sadly come to an end. Now hold still."

The realization that she was going to kill me pushed away the fog over my mind, and even as I couldn't make heads or tails of things… I knew I had to get away. I had to get away!

"Oh, shush child," Master murmured as she pulled back my head, "It will be over soon."

No! No! I can't let- in my desperation, I reached out and grasped the world. I… what was I even doing! I grasped the world and… it faded around me, replaced with a bla- with a swirling mix of colors, many I could never begin to name!

"What are yo-" Master demanded, but it was too late, I was free of her grasp and… and I was falling. Even as memories started sparking and returning to me. I was falling, and I was free!

My name was not, Girl! It was Vaela! I was an Elf! Dragon blooded! I-I remember now! Oh… I remember now. My world… my parents. They left me. They… I- No wait! I was- but… As I fell through the multi-hued void I clutched my head, struggling to piece myself back together. I was ___ but I was Vaela, but I was ____? Who… what… where? Who was I? But it was a moot point in this place of infinite questions, infinite answers, infinite possibility. No, what mattered here was that I was falling through everywhere, and nowhere. And I couldn't help but wonder what I would do now. What could I possibly do?! And how would I get free from this? But at least Ma- Κίρκη couldn't kill me now… probably? Hopefully.

The crux of the problem was simple. I didn't actually have any driving force. No intense need to return home. No home to return to anyway. Did I want to figure out what happened to me? A little. Did I want to understand how I got here? I maybe?

And a memory shifted loose in my skull, drawing attention to itself. The Second True Magic. The Kaleidoscope? Zelretch's magic. That's what this was… more or less. And I was using it… more or less. So… huh.

"Fuck!" I yelped out as I suddenly found myself falling through normal air! Falling towards a hard stone surface. Have you ever fallen on your face? Let me tell you, it is not something you would enjoy, and if you have? I feel for you, I really do.

All that said? I didn't have time to suffer in my pain before having to look up, because of course there was something here trying to kill me! Of course! The thing was a desiccated corpse in tattered clothing that… maybe it was finery at one point? Anyways, it was holding a staff and I could feel the power being gathered to it!

Did- could- In the back of my mind, piercing blue eyes opened up, and in the here and now, my eyes started to dimly glow as I shaped Mana into a mystery. [Δόρυ Φωτός]

A brilliant beam of light lanced out with the uttering of the auto-hypnosis and cleanly took the head off the corpse. I… why was it moving? But as much as I wanted to know that answer, I was also breathing hard, my body radiating heat, my circuits blazing from heavy use. My mystery, far from efficient, far from usable.

Biting my lip, I looked around, but while there were many, many more walking dead… none of them seemed to notice the very noticeable flash of light so I took the time to examine the dead… thing. It had been a person, once.

More interesting to me, than the dead person, was that I could feel a metaphysical weight settling around me. Kind of like a mantle. Like a blanket? Odd, and something I would have to investigate… Once I found somewhere safe.

Instead, I took the staff from the dead-undead person and moved over to the other corpse up here and rifled through its pockets. I mean, I was already scavenging from the dead… might as well see if there was anything else worth taking. What I found was a scroll. Just… a scroll.

It was frustrating, as I was hoping for something a little more useful, but it was also interesting, as when I opened it, I found words I couldn't understand, and more importantly… I found formuli that seemed like they might be part of a spell. A spell, not a Mystery? That was… interesting. Κίρκη had insisted that all spells were simply the layman's term for a mystery. But, what I could remember of- the time before I was in her care, and this scroll suggested otherwise.

Differing methods of magic perhaps? I had something else to research… and I needed to look into how I got here… and I needed to make sure I could secure food and water, on top of looking for safe harbor.

Shaking my head, I took a moment to look around, get a feel fo- "That is a big tree… made of magic? Divine energy?" There was also a castle and a few lesser trees- Well, I say lesser, but they were still massive.

Seeing that tree, I knew where I was though… the Lands Between, Elden Ring. A video game, of it was in another world. Right… I was going to need to find a way out of here right quick- or was I? Would the Tarnished be a crazy, bloodrune-thirsty beast? I hope not.

Which would make that Metaphysical weight, Runes… still going to be spending time studying those. But again… where could I hold up? The castle was right out, too much trouble getting in and out. Maybe the sorcerer lady… what's her name? She is pretty close… but if it isn't clear- No, how the fuck did I know all of this! Were these my memories? Someone else's? Just random knowledge pulled from the void? Or, Kaleidoscope I guess?

Shaking my head, I looked around and debated my next action for a moment before I started sniping the undead with my [Δόρυ Φωτός]. Letting the beam of energy kill them. Even if I had to wait between uses for my body to cool down.

It was my only offensive Mystery, and it was not ready for use. This was also a problem I would need to find a solution to.

Only when everything was dead did I climb down and start making my way through the small camp looking for anything I could salvage. A couple of Golden Runes, a backpack… and a sword. I would need armor of some kind… or at least clothes! I mean, look at me!

All I was wearing was a light dress! A Greek chiton so even less than you're thinking, and this was meant for warmer climates!

Making sure to stay off the road, I started off towards where the Sorcerer lady was. If I was lucky… if I was lucky… sigh.

Stopping at the tombs? Sarcophagi? Well, halfway there, I took a break to collect a few more Golden Runes… and kill some wolves. [Ενίσχυση] is probably the best spell ever. And I needed it, as I carried one of the wolf corpses along with me. As for the plants above my hopeful destination… Well, it took over the course of seven minutes, I killed the little ones that were in my way of getting to the stairwell down… and I found the room clear with the door at the back already open; good, good. More notably, I could sense where the site of grace was. Very interesting that I couldn't see it, but I could feel where the well of divine… or semi-divine, power was.

"Oh! Another Tarnished?" The woman muttered though that stupid-looking stone helmet muffled it a bit. "No, she doesn't have that look about her… curious."

Ignoring her, I started building a Bounded Field that would detect hostility and/or madness. It wouldn't protect me from it, but it would at least warm me.

The sound of footsteps behind me was a little distracting, and I found that the Sorceress had left her little nook of a room to investigate what I was doing. Which was etching anchoring runes into the doorframe.

"What are you doing? I've never seen magic like this." She muttered in what I assume was a frown. Well, based on her voice. Maybe?

I thought about ignoring her, but well. "Just a Bounded Field to detect hostility/madness."

"Hmm, I've never heard of a bounded field before…" She asked in reply, and the question was; how much did I want to tell her?

"I could teach you about them… but what do you have for trade? Any interesting spells? Magic Theory?" I shot back, as I used a bit of blood to activate this set of anchors, and headed for a corner.

"I suppose I could share a few secrets of Glintstone sorcery." She agreed.

The part of me that didn't know anything about video games or Nasu's works, found this interesting. The part of me that did? Well, I wondered how useful this knowledge would be. "That sounds fair. Oh, right. I'm Vaela, it's nice to meet you…"

"And I'm Sellen." She replied, then muttered, "This could be quite interesting."

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Glintstone Sorcery was… a crude approximation of Magecraft. Effective? Yes, but it was by no means impressive, except for the fact the user didn't need a metaphysical origin to use it. That was what the staff was for, apparently. And the staff! Oh boy! I had pages of notes on how staves worked. These staves. Not that I could do anything with that right now, but it gave me many ideas. Artificial Magic Circuits, external Magic Cores… things like that. I would need more research and insight, but it was fascinating. It would allow me to bypass the limits of my average circuit count.

In contrast, the base spell of Glintstone Sorcery was… disappointing. Easy to cast, cheap, but oh so weak. However, no matter how much I deride the spell? It was still capable of tracking targets.

Besides, parts of the spell, yes spell, were useful to me. I was working on integrating spells and Mysteries. The term Conservation of Mystery was a false truism. Or so my teachings from Κίρκη led me to understand. Modern Magecraft, as best I could guess, only suffered it because of two things. The fact magic was hidden, leading to people collectively not believing in it. And the Magus community believing that the ridiculous concept was true. So, it became true.

The decline of magic was all the fault of Magi. Oh, the irony.

Anyways, this spell was helping me refine my Δόρυ Φωτός, making it more cost-efficient… but more importantly, I was able to streamline the mystery? No, let's call it a spell. I was able to streamline the spell to the point I could cast it in a couple of seconds. Cheap, Fast, or Powerful. Pick two.

Fast and Cheap were decent enough really, and it wasn't like I wasn't working on improving the spell. Besides, the heat build-up in my circuits was low enough that I could actually use it now!

On Sellen's side, she found the concept of Bounded Fields to be both interesting and frustrating. I could understand, but not really pity her. You see, she was having trouble shifting her paradigm as learning about Bounded Fields was throwing everything she thought she knew about magic into her face. Still, in spite of that, she was making progress in understanding and using that knowledge.

As for the scroll, I found? She actually understood it and helped me transcribe a copy of the spells into my growing journal. Glintstone Phalanx, which I probably would never use, and Carian Slicer which I would.

The first, Glintstone Phalanx, was a spread of blades formed of Mana that would shoot at a target.

The second spell though… oh, that second spell. [ξίφος]. And if you haven't figured it out… Well, it created a blade of Mana overlaid on a focus, the staff I picked up, or a piece of properly shaped Glintstone. The problem with it was that the blade didn't really last long. And it needed a focus. More importantly, it took too long to generate; seconds were far too long in combat.

All of that said, I liked the spell and had gone out and used it to kill a few undead peo- things? People. Which in turn got me more of this strange energy, Runes. Why did they call it Runes?!

Making sense of what Runes actually did, and trying to figure out why they're called that when they aren't physical things, was frustrating and took a good bit of time and effort, which between hunting food, tanning furs to make something to wear, and learning/working on my Magecraft left me with rather full days. It took far more than a day to do all of this, three months in fact.

One day while meditating, studying the energy, feeling it out. The cloud of energy suddenly twisted back along my probing and pushed into m- into my soul!

This threw me into a panic as changes to the soul could have all kinds of bad side effects. From soul corrosion to… far less pleasant things. But even as I began to freak out, I found the energy just sitting in my soul, doing nothing but… Seeming to be waiting for something?

Chewing on my lip, I fretted over it but… the energy was already there, and leaving it could be just as bad as using it. So… Hoping things didn't go horribly wrong, I-I reached into myself and I poked the mass of energy watching it swirl around. And… I started to get an idea of what it was. Intellectually, I knew, and even kind of understood, but here and now, it was put into stark relief for me. This was pure metaphysical weight, power. Not unlike the concept of a Heroic Spirit's Legend. Was this… somehow absorbing δοκιμασία? Er that is, the effects one an- no, I don't think that concept comes across right? An Ordeal; Tribulations… The trials that forge us into greatness. Crucible of our souls.

This mass, as I poked around at it, slowly started to seep into my very being and… and form metaphysical structures in my body and soul. Changing me… making me… um, more receptive to being further augmented? That seemed right. But it was not without pain, and somehow I wasn't surprised that Sellen didn't seem to care about my suffering.

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Eventually, I turned my focus to figuring out how I had passed through the void between worlds… the Gulf. True Magic, as Κίρκη had taught me about the concept anyway, wasn't impossibly unattainable… it was simply something that requires you to learn to think differently. Each one had its own root logic.

Memories from another life were saying that the Five True Magics were… near unattainable. But those were memories from the outside, with no understanding of the underpinnings of things… also it was based on 'Modern Magecraft' where Κίρκη had taught me Magecraft as done in the Age of the Gods. Really, I'm not surprised she was going to kill me anymore, I'm more surprised she didn't do it sooner. And memories… I don't want to even start talking about the mess that was my mind.

Anyways, the Kaleidoscope was… the operation of parallel worlds? Yeah, that sounds right, but what does that mean? Well, I couldn't even begin to get into all the specifics… and I don't know if I even use the Kaleidoscope… or something else? But considering I moved through at least two worlds to get here… and I have memories that… anyways, I have these memories. Well, something like it at least. Adjacent to it, maybe?

I… don't think I used it that first time. So discounting that… How did I use it when Κίρκη was going to kill me? I-umm, I was scared as fuck for one, ok… and I wanted to get away… so that… hmm…

From that point on, I started culling things around this little safe haven, and when I was done for the day, I would find a quiet place to sit down and experiment with the Kaleidoscope. I didn't want to stay here, because while I was subsisting, I wasn't living and maybe I kind of wanted to explore a bit… I mean the multiverse. And maybe, gods, poke the Fifth Grail War in the eye at some point… that sounded like it could be fun.

The way I came up with to travel was… it was bad. Kit-bashed rituals are usually a bad idea. More so when you don't have materials to research them and what you're doing. But hey! I'm still alive, so?

Anyways, setting up the ritual was a long and drawn-out process. Several days, a number of murdered wolves, and a lot of blood used to scribble out a circle. My destination was well and truly unknown, but elsewhere was better than here. Maybe, maybe… but I had hit a wall. You can only do so much without hard data from observing a Mystery in action or using a spell to be able to guess at… stuff. I had to use it to generate the data I needed… which meant using it… which meant going somewhere. 'Fun', just… Please not Earth Bet… please?

Shaking that thought off, I refocused and started my ritual… Crude, hap-hazard, and needing refinement and work. And as the rift opened in the center of the circle, I steeled myself and… walked into it.

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My face, it met the ground. New data! Not friendly new data… but I had something to put towards my Kaleidoscope research. Rolling over I groaned and struggled to stand. "I'll have to watch that drop…"

With a grunt, I pulled myself up onto my feet, scooping up my staff, looking around, and muttering, "Well, I can't say I'm impressed."

On one hand, I found myself in a city. A veritable metropolis. On the other hand, the city was still powered by hay and horse shit. And wow, I had never seen one of these… automobiles, but I had a prejudice against horses? This memory thing was really messing with me.

Thankfully though! My memories, mine, from before all of this happened stood me in good- Standing? Stead? Well, I remember f-father always going on about how mercenaries always gathered at the taverns looking for work. So, that was my second destination. My first was to find someone to sell these pelts to.

As I walked into the Grease Hamster, a disturbing name for a tavern. But it was close, cheap, and apparently a good place for someone looking to get started. But the interior was just… ok, take a dark and moody tavern, now dress it up in bright colors. That's what I walked into. Shaking my head, I found an empty table, it wasn't in a corner, all those were taken by solitary brooding figures in leathers with hoods pulled down over their faces.

After ordering a drink and a meal, I took in the room, and it was odd. There was a female goblin running around with what for her was a greatsword, a Minitaur with a hammer as big as I was… and so much more. There was also a corkboard with papers tacked to it. A job board, maybe?

After I finished my meal, I got up and made my way over to look at the board, and… job board might be a bit of a stretch. It had fliers in one corner advertising things around the city, with the majority of the board being folded parchment tacked up with a name scrawled on it. Well, the jobs, taking up another corner. Looking over those, I looked for quick easy money, because for all that I had money? I needed time to sit around and figure things out! Maybe pay for a Wizard to help me iron out my- my spell. Fuck, I needed to learn more spells, that's what I needed!

But, at least I knew how to heal! That was one thing Κίρκη beat into me or stabbed in some cases. I wonder if I could sell that?

So, I set about looking into a few things. Work as a healer, if I could find some caster willing to help me, and for some clothes. The easiest of those was the healing actually. Go figure.

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A week had passed, and I had money! Well, not a lot of money, but money. I did also have traveling supplies, traveling clothes, and armor!

It was to my surprise when someone sat down at my table, one morning, "Greetings."

Looking up, I found myself looking at a rather odd dwarf. If I had to describe him, I would call him cowboyish. He wore a hide long coat with a… a stetson, more or less. "I heard you're looking for a job?"

"Hmm." I, well, hummed. A job implied 'adventuring' or really mercenary work. Maybe some tomb robing, or ruin delving. "Well, let's hear it?"

"Ten gold, each, for you and another three I've found, to take a load of supplies to Phandalin. I'll be heading out today, and the load will be ready tomorrow. So, you in?"

Really, I could make more money just sticking around and healing people, but on the other hand, this was a good chance to get some hands-on experience. Besides, most of the money would come from looting people.

"Sure, this could be interesting if nothing else." I agreed, and so the dwarf, Gundren Rockseeker, launched into an explanation of where to meet the rest of the party tomorrow.

After another day of healing and then trying to work out magic, I ended up paying for a book on the subject. But the next day, I met these… people at the southern gate of Neverwinter.

Walking up to the wagon, I found myself looking at a Tiefling and two Humans. The Tiefling- hells, all of them, were young. Maybe seventeen? Well, the Tiefling had skin that was almost a human skin tone, but just a little too red, curved back horns, a thin tail, and hooved digitigrade legs. He wore scale mail, with a shield and a mace, oh, and had black hair.

Of the two humans, one was male and the other female. The guy was a tall brown-haired lad with a strong jaw covered in a light beard. He wore chainmail over traveling clothes and had a shield and bastard sword.

The woman, on the other hand, wore leathers much like my own, mismatched and rough, though her's had a hood, she also had a short bow and quiver as well as a backsword. A kind of saber. She had blonde hair and green eyes with a smattering of freckles.

"Hail," I called as I approached, "'This the party for Phandalin?"

"Indeed," the human guy replied with a boyish smile. "Would you be the caster Gundren said he would find for us?"

Smiling, I gave a short bow, and replied, "Vaela Aeaea, healer and aspiring Magus, at your service."

"Oh? Another Cleric?" The Tiefling asked.

"Nay," I disagreed, "My magic is wholly my own."

"Huh, that's neat." The woman interjected, "I'm Silla, Hunter."

"Ah, yes, my manners," The Tiefling muttered, before introducing himself. "Hymlen, Neophyte Priest of Tymora."

"And I'm Markith Harlock, a simple warrior with dreams of regaining my family's lost prestige." The human man offered.

Silla, Hymlen, and Markith. Okay… sure, but why was one of them a Harlock?! This isn't the right chunk of the multiverse! Still, I should poke this and… make sure? "You're family wasn't, perchance, merchant princes that sailed the void between starts in service to the golden throne?"

"Huh," He muttered, before replying, "No, no… not for a long many centuries if the family legend is to be believed."

Motherfucking Harlocks!

Anyways, "Well, then. We should probably get going."

"Right, right!" Hymlen agreed, "We have many days of travel ahead of us."

 

[Kerashana]

Path so far :: DnD > Fate/AoG > Elden Ring > D&D
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Name: Vaela Aeaea

Race: Astral Elf // Dragon ancestry​

Teacher: Κίρκη
Description:

Vaela is a lithe young woman, an elf with long ears and bright blue eyes. Dark brown hair falls in loose curls, framing a thin heart-shaped face. She had fair white skin that still holds a fading bronzing from many years spent in the sun. She has a modest bust, and a thin waist, with visible muscle tone.​

Natsu stats

Skills:​

High-Speed Incantations - C
Magecraft - B​

Magic - ??​

Runecraft - C
Kaleidoscope - E (EX) -- This is always maxed, but shows as how skilled the user is with it.​

Traits:​

Aspect of the Dragon - EX
Divinity - E
Refined Existence - E (EX) -- This is the effects of Runes
Longevity - EX -- Elf + Dragon Blood + Minor Divinity -- mostly doesn't matter
Cooking - -F​

Spells:​

Core:​

Δόρυ Φωτός
διορθώνω​

Μπάνισε βρωμιά​

Natsu:​

Δομική ανάλυση
Αλλαγή
Ενίσχυση
Επισκευή​

Elden Ring:​

αστέρια
ξίφος
​

D&D:​

Sacred Flame Μαλώνω
αρπαγή​

--Qo​

Γοητεύω
Υπνος​

Πιάσιμο​

--Haalvut​

.......

Items:

To Be Announced

 

[Kerashana]

A/N: Woooph. I would love to see people do things like this, the roll/play as you write. It's a bit of work, but tell me what you think? Did I catch the chaos of combat, and manage to make it feel more like a real fight than a turn-based blah?

Anyways, you'll notice I'm playing loose with magic for Vaela, but that's because she uses an Out of Context method. I'm still holding to spells as written, mostly, but with time, Magecraft can alter things. So, basically, every spell is something she can ritual cast.
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So, I know, I hear it, even from here. Vaela! You know where you are, don't you?

Well, yeah, on the High Road outside Neverwinter, on the Sword Coats of Toril. Or, for those great Grognards, we have in the audience, the Remembered Realms. Thankfully, I never ran into either of those pesky Drow and their accompanying parties.

I was headed to Phandalin, that oh-so-mythical starting town, with a group, on what I was certain was the beginnings of the Lost Mines of Phandelver. Too bad I only remembered/knew some of it and not all the specifics. Besides, things were different, this was not some trite story, right?

Anyway, over the course of four days of travel, I managed to brew three Potions of Healing with some experimentation on the first day. I also started to get a handle on magic!

The Weave. The construct formed by the goddess of magic hereabouts? It was a fascinating mystery to study. I learned many things, but most importantly, how to shape true spells out of mysteries. More! With my metaphysical origins? My Magic Circuits? Well, I wasn't limited like Wizards and Sorcerers.

Oh, I still had limits, but not spell slots, and far more power to tap than they did… if I ever figured out how to optimize things. Ending up here was a great boon.

Already my Δόρυ Φωτός was actually usable! Hells, it was almost negligible in cost, so long as I didn't pump it up. Oh! And I could juice my hand! Cover it in electricity! αρπαγή, perhaps? That one just kind of came to me!

I couldn't help but be giddy with- well, joy, I had magic! Real magic! And that book on Arcane Theory was worth the money!

But anyways, we've been on the Triboar Trail, the site of the ambush to come, for a while now. And I was somehow unsurprised we had managed to avoid any brigands. So it wasn't a surprise to see two horses wandering the road ahead sniffing at ransacked personnel effects.

This was a bend in the road, with dense thickets on either side and steep embankments… yeah, this had to be the place.

"Hold up," I called out from beside the wagon. Then I held up my staff, which I was totally going to replace the first chance I could, and cast my spell! "αστέρια"

A bolt of greenish-blue energy flew off to slam into the bushes to the left just past the horses and… sure enough! Goblins! On the other hand, I had not expected that Goblin to lose it's torse!

"Tails! Goblins!" Hymlen… cursed? Before charging at the little shits, even as an arrow came wildly careening in his general direction… if you squinted. Not that Markith was far behind, a handaxe flying from his hand to… gorily embedded in the skull of another goblin.

Not that Silla or I were just waiting around. She loosed an arrow which also missed, while I called on my magics, with a warming of my circuits, and a muttered, "Δόρυ Φωτός."

My beam of Prana scythed through another goblin, but instead of congratulating myself I called out, "Take one alive!"

Hymlen kept charging forward, crashing through the underbrush, and I kind of lost site of what was happening. But I could hear screaming goblin and cruising people. Then nothing as Silla rushed forward and let fly.

Then, of course, they got to looting the goblins, even as I checked the horses and scattered personal effects. Checking the horses themselves, I found an empty leather tube, a map case perhaps?

"Damn, it really is Gundren's horse, and that should make this one Sildar's," Markith grumbled as he walked up.

"No corpses around," Silla commented, "Gobo's probably took them."

"Which means," Hymlen added in, only for me to cut him off.

"We're going after them. Besides, Goblin hideout near the road? Sounds like money to be made." I replied with a smirk, then turning on Hymlen I asked, "You have a ranged Cantrip, right?"

"Um… yeah?" He replied.

"Why didn't you use it?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oops?" He muttered, I think blushing?

"Alright…" I grumbled, "Keep in mind any obvious trail will be trapped, and these are goblins, so they will try and hit from ambush."

"Yes, mother." Silla grumbled, "Now, why don't we get a direction from the goblin I didn't kill?"

A few minutes later, the horses were rangled with the wagon, and the goblin was now conscious.

"Ah, no hurt Snook! No hurt!" The pathetic thing begged.

"I guess you're going to tell us what we want to know then?" Markith demanded, trying to put on the menace. And was not doing all that well at it.

"Snook tell! Snook tell!" But then, it was just a gobo.

"What happened to Gundren?" Markith demanded… there had to be some history there.

"Smelly dwarf?" Snook asked, not sounding all that scared, quite suddenly, "Klarg told to capture dwarf by King Grol! Klarg grumbled about Spider wanting things!"

Markith narrowed his eyes, "And Sildar?"

"Human?" Snook muttered, more of a question than an answer, "The humie is in eating cave!

"And Klarg is?" I asked, "You're leader? Another Goblin?"

"Klarg big! Fuzzy!" Snook replied happily, "Klarg once kicked Snook. Mean Bugbear. At least not strange Gob though!"

"Strange Goblin?" Silla asked, suddenly paying a lot of attention.

"Ya! Snook no like long heads. Powerful though, strange green energy makes weapons hurts more. Always laughing though. Creepy." The Goblin explained.

And I did not remember this! This was definitely a twist! But how much so?

"Which way to your hideout?" Hymlen asked, someone finally getting to the real important question.

"Ah, ah, dat way." Snook muttered, pointing off into the woods.

Reaching out, I flipped open my circuits and muttered, Υπνος, causing the gobo to fall asleep. "That should keep it out for most of a day, I say we tie it to a tree and see what this hideout holds."

"What about the wagon?" Markith asked, Hymlen nodding along.

Silla sighed, with an obvious roll of her eyes, "We hide it off the road."

"Well, this is nice." I grumbled, "Someone can actually think!"

"Hey!" Both the men exclaimed, but they helped us hide the wagon and horses. Then we were off to try and find Gobo-land, the lesser. Or, well, the hideout.

Silla easily pointed out a couple of snares, but then she fell into a pitfall of all things.

"Really Sil?" Markith asked her as he helped her up the shallow incline of the walls.

She just shrugged, looking quite embarrassed.

"So…" Markith spoke up, turning to me. "I can't stop wondering, why did you ask me that question? No one but a Harlock would even know that anymore."

"Is now really the time for this?" Hymlen asked as he looked around.

Doing the same, Markith muttered, "Right, later then."

Soon enough, we came to a stream flowing out of a tunnel entrance… and this? This I knew.

Placing a hand on Silla's shoulder, I turned to the others and made a shushing motion. Then pointed at the briars across the stream.

Nodding, Silla pulled out her bow, while Hymlen pulled out a crossbow, and they both readied to fire. So, with a nod, I broke out into a run, sprinting along the steam to a good place to make the jump across, then around the briar; a muttering of ξίφος preparing me for the coming fight.

Sweeping my staff around like a spear, I slashed through- completely through one of the two Gobo. Then the other sprouted an arrow from it's head… huh. Oh fuck! There was a third Goblin!

Throwing myself to the side, I mostly managed to dodge the first attack, only taking a small wound to the leg, and blocking the next attack with my staff! Fuck, this really wasn't what I remember!

And that was a wild crossbow bolt! Fuck, Hymlen needs practice if he almost hit me!

Shit, shit, I needed to get away! Open ran-

I suddenly found myself back more than ten feet- how- no, "Δόρυ Φωτός."

Again, I fired off a beam of Prana, and cursed under my breath as the beam was all but anemic! What was with this fluctuation?! I was going to have to look into this! I mean, fuck! Arrows were better! And of course, Markith, half out of the water, easily blocked both attacks on him.

And with a flash of golden flame, the Goblin seemed to slide out from the burst of flames. Then Markith impressed me with a seeming casual flick of his sword he took the Gobo's head off.

"Well, shit," I grumbled through not quite ragged breath.

As I caught my breath, the others looted the Goblins, and Silla disappeared into the mouth of the cave, only to immediately come back. "Wolves in the next chamber. Think you can calm them Kith?"

Markith, looked down at the goblin bodies, before nodding. "Bet they're hungry."

Oh… er, well, it was a good use for Goblin bodies.

Grabbing two of the bodies, he headed for the cave and tossed the bodies in, before getting the third one… and that was all that was needed to calm them down.

From there, it didn't take long for Silla to determine there was nothing worthwhile in there, aside from a chute she called dangerous. And for your sake, the chamber had three wolves chained to the only stalagmite in the chamber.

Nothing interesting.

In the cave proper, I took the lead with Hymlen helping the two humans muddle through the dark. After all, a light source would give us away.

Besides, this one I remembered, might as well make the best of it. You see, the 'main passage', the only passage in and out, climbed steeply upwards, with the stream plunging and splashing down on the west side of the tunnel, taking up about half to two-thirds of the tunnel. And in the shadows near the ceiling, there was a rope bridge with a Gobo standing lookout.

Sadly, Δόρυ Φωτός was, well, bright. So, I had to do some quick thinking and after the calculus of what options I had, I came up with Υπνος. It wouldn't kill it, but the Gobo would be incapacitated. Then we could debate if we wanted to go up the side passage that would almost assuredly give us away with two people in heavy armor. Or sweep and clear.

Though, besides a glance at that path, then followed me, Silla holding a cupped hand out in front of her, a small beam of light coming out of it… ah, that would make sense. Put Light on a coin and cover or direct it with your hand to minimize the, well, light.

Pointing up the slope, I motioned for them to go that way as I looked up at the bridge and… and… willed myself to be on it?

And with a nearly imperceptible flash of starlight, I was standing on the bridge. That… worked! Ha! I could teleport. Now I just needed to figure out how it worked.

Using a dagger, I slit the Gobo's throat and rifled it's pockets. What! Money's money! And I'll keep telling myself that, even as I found thirteen copper.

Moving along, to meet back up with the group, I found the perfect place to use Υπνος again, three Gobos and two wolves. And of course, I get the Gobos only for the wolves to shrug it off.

And start heading my way, sniffing. Great, Gobo blood.

Somehow the lead wolf didn't catch my sent, giving me precious moments to act, and act I did.

Lunging forward, I lashed out with my ξίφος, and nearly missed! My blade of energy carving a furrow through a shoulder instead of taking off its head.

Rushing up, Markith slammed down a foot and twisted, snapping the neck of the Gobo he was standing on, causing the other wolf to lung at him and sink its teeth into his leg. Then all I could see for a few seconds was golden flames, and the wolf before me was dead.

Stepping forward, I stabbed the last sleeping Gobo, and noticed that Silla had killed the other at some point.

"Who dares!" Came a gruff shout from the other chamber, and I just knew it was Klarg. Great!

Smacking the wolf off of his leg, and man that had to hurt, Markith lashed out giving it a great bleeding wound. But of course, the enemy always gets a say and the wolf went for another bite, only to get a shield. Only for Silla, in spite of the two Gobos running up to her, to split the wolf in half, messly.

As he passed by Markith, Hymlen spoke out a word in… Celestial? Causing the wound on his leg to instantly close up. Then he proceeded to completely miss with his mace as he swung it at a Gobo.

Quickly moving out into the knee-deep pools of water, to get a good line of sight on Klarg, I let loose a αστέρια. And watched as it slammed into the bugbear… and didn't kill it. Ooph.

"Klarg kill you!" The Bugbear bellowed out, then charged at me, more or less.

Thankfully, mossy stone saved me from a face full of mace, and Klarg missed while trying to keep his balance. And of course, Markith did the same thing as he rushed over to help me.

Silla let out a scream of pain, but with Klarg right in front of me, I couldn't devote the time to check why. Then Hymlen stepped forward and brought his mace down on Klarg's head, crushing it, at the same time speaking another word in Celestial.

Turning to strike at the wolf that had rushed up behind me, I finally got that beheading strike I was looking for, and when I turned back the last Gobo was dead.

We looted the corpses and then started looking at the piled goods.

"Hey, a lot of this is marked with the Blue Lion of the Lionshield Coster!" Markith called out, "I bet we could get a reward for returning it!"

"Sounds good." Hymlen agreed, and I silently agreed with him.

Now, where was… ah! I knew I remembered a loot box being hidden in here! "Hey! I found a chest, Silla, want to give it a quick check?"

"Oh!" She vocalized, like a dog perking their ears, "Yeah!" A couple of moments later she shook her head. "No traps! Now, what's in here!"

Opening the chest, we found a whole bunch of copper coins, some silver, two potions of healing, and a statuette. I suggested the potions go to Markith and Sila, and we took a couple of minutes breather. Which I used as a change to cycle my circuits and cool down a bit. I would need my magic for what was to come. Then we headed across the bridge to what I knew was the last encounter of this hideout.

"Halt! Ot the Humie get's it!" one of the Gobos yelled in a… shrill voice.

The 'Humie' was a bedraggled man in a chain shirt and with a tabard of yellow and red. Lords Alliance? If I remember right…

Grabbing my coin pouch I tossed it up and down in my hand. "Let me purchase him from you."

"Yes, yes!" Another Gobo yelled, greed filling it's eyes. And soon the Gobos cry was mirrored by the… lesser Gobos.

"Fines!" The fist Gobo yelled, to cheers from the greeting green skins.

"Send him over and you'll get what's yours." I declared and didn't say what I was going to give. But that's ok, the Gobos didn't realize.

Slowly, the human was led down, then over to me, and that was when I made my move. I lashed out with my ξίφος, leaving a deep gouge in the lead Gobo, and at the same time, called on the teachings of Κίρκη. "διορθώνω."

Healing energies washed over the human, presumably, Sildar, or things had gotten really strange.

Of course, then an arrow flew past my hip and slammed into the leader's eye socket. Silla proving that Rogue's gonna murder shit. At about the same time, I was backing up and motioning Sildar to get behind us.

Thankfully, the Goblins seemed to just be ignoring him. As they rushed forward, I got a front-row seat as one slid their crude sword into Markith's leg, right where he had been bitten! This had the obvious effect of causing his retaliatory swing to, well swing wide. In this confusion though, Sildar rushed off, taking cover behind the group, even as an arrow sprouted from Markith's shoulder.

Thankfully, the javelin thrown at- fuck it! Kith wills, clattering off a wall. And that was another arrow!

I let out a small yelp as I was pulled back and Hymlen stepped forward into where I had been standing. Bringing up his shield to guard. Now, what should I… the archers.

With a word, I sent a beam off to slam into one of the Gobo archers and- gods blood! Didn't kill it! I really had to get this fluctuating power worked out! Did it have something to do with wild magic?

Then Kith hit the ground as a Gobo blade snuck its way into his gut! Oh shit! That was an arrow! Intended for me! And that was a Javalin! Fuck!

Next thing I knew Hymlen had stepped forward and was standing over the corpse of a crushed Goblin. Fuck! Can we even handle this fight?

I wanted to take a moment and splash a potion on Kith… but we needed to get these Gobos thinned out! So instead, I sent out the strongest thing I could muster right now at the fucker throwing javelins! And αστέρια didn't disappoint as it ripped into the Gobo, but frustratingly didn't kill it outright.

Silla on the other hand, took yet another life, leaving the Gobo dead on the floor!

Fuck, ok… that hurt.

Looking down, I found a javelin lodged in my gut… this suddenly felt just like my training to heal under Κίρκη. Why does that fill me with a feeling of nostalgia?

Shaking the thought away, I focused myself and sent off another beam, what was a little gut pain anyway? And so, only the Javali- nevermind, that would be Silla killing the fuck out of him.

"Wilting crops! Kith! Vae! Shit, shit… Hold on, don't-" Silla started panicking as she saw the javelin in my gut. Of course, this was just a training injury for me, so…

Gritting my teeth, I flipped open all my meager circuits and flooded myself with Od, and drew in Mana from the world around me. Mixing them together, I formed the Prana I needed to fuel my healing Mystery, and then I ripped the Javalin out of my gut.

And in a flash of golden light, my wound started to knit together, no blood spilling out, and most importantly for this kind of wound, purifying the filth that leaked out. Because Κίρκη would not have one of her apprentices dying to such an ignoble death as sepsis!

Breathed hard, I dropped to my knees and, even as I started to steam, reached out and lay my hands on Kith, channeling my Prana into him, letting it do its work. But I couldn't keep it going, not with the burning in my circuits and the ache in my bones. Then blackness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Erk! That last fight! That could have easily turned into a TPK!

 

[Kerashana]

A/N: A bit short, but a good break point, so hey! two chaps in a day!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next thing I knew, I was propped up against the wall, with Hymlen kneeling over me. "I don't know what that was, but she's not dying, just… I don't know!"

"It doesn't matter, she's alive and she healed Kith… mostly," Silla replied from not too far away.

"Right-" He began to reply, only for me to cut him off.

"Just… need to cool off." I muttered, "Will be fine."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Silla immediately asked.

Was there? "Pool… water."

"If you're sure?" Hymlen muttered, helping me up, then leading me to the chamber with the water pools, and with a little direction, to sit me down in one.

Eventually, I stopped heating the water and had cooled to more reasonable temperatures. The question of how I could survive with my blood almost literally boiling in my veins was becoming a far more important thing to find the answer to.

Instead, I continued to sit there, and I pulled my accumulated Runes into myself and channeled them toward my circuits. The energy flowed like water, rushing to its destination and sinking in.

Struggling up, I looked around before moving to rejoin the others in the chamber with the supplies in it. "I'm alive."

"What was that?" Silla asked looking up from where she was sorting coins next to a fire.

Er… how much did I want to tell? "Just the downside of reaching too far into magic? But if there ever was a time for it, that seemed like it."

"Yeah." Kith grunted, "I rather like being alive."

"And on that note." Hymlen spoke up, "We found this with the Goblin's things. We all agree you should have it."

And the Tiefling handed me a bag? Wait! Running Δομική ανάλυση I found my brows rising! Magic item! Bag of Holding! Yes! "Thank you! This will be… amazing!"

"Yes, well," Hymlen continued, "We've already stored as much of the supplies as we could in it, and just need to get the rest onto the wagon and the horses."

Right, that was a good idea! "Cool, so… I guess we head out as soon as Silla is done counting?"

"Yes," Sildar spoke up from where he was resting. "I assume you need to set the wagon and horses?"

Pulling himself to his feet, Markith nodded. "Right, Hymlen?"

"Of course." The Cleric agreed and they headed off.

To save everyone the small minutia, money was distributed, supplies stowed, and even those three wolves were freed. Then the five of us headed for Phandalin. Along the way, Sildar shared with us a number of things.

The first was about what Gundren and his brothers were up to. Wave Echo Cave, the mines of the Phandelver Pact. I knew this and also knew we would find Gundren at Cragmaw Castle. Not that I voiced that. And of course, the 'mysterious' Spider, who had ordered Klarg waylay Gundren.

Finally, Sildar mentioned Cragmaw Castle and that Klarg had sent Gundren and a map the Wave Echo there. Not that he knew where it was. Then he moved on to things I didn't expect. When he and Gundren were captured, there was a strange Goblin with an elongated skull there. It creeped him out and didn't seem associated with the Cragmaw. Before to left, it whispered, 'You're not what Ruxithid wants' to Sildar… and didn't that complicate things!

As we neared Pahdalin, Sildar shifted topics, "I was originally coming here to look for a missing associate, Iarno Albrek, a human wizard. Should you find anything, let me know. Oh, and of course I will find you all a worthwhile reward for saving me."

And soon enough, the road led to our first glimpse of Phandalin in the light of the late afternoon sun. It consisted of forty or fifty simple log buildings, some built on old fieldstone foundations. More old ruins, crumbling stone walls covered in ivy and briars, surround the newer houses and shops. The corpse of Old Phandalin.

In the distance, I could make out the next big destination, the ruined manor house on a hillside on the east side of town. Glasstaff and his Redbrands.

As we rolled into town, I could see children playing on the village green, or running errands for their parents, and adults tending to chores or running errands at the shops in town. It was odd though, when many of them looked up and smiled as we approached before returning to their business.

"Hey, kid!" I called out, as we neared Barthen's Provisions, "I'll pay you a silver if you go fetch the proprietor of the Lionshield Coster and bring her here."

The little human boy looked up at me with wide eyes. "Really miss!"

"Yup." I agreed, and the kid took off running.

"You know, he probably would have still done it for a Copper," Sildar commented, and I mean, sure…

"But this will be something he will remember fondly for years to come." I shot back, "Besides, what's a Silver?"

"Ha, fair enough." He agreed, "I'll meet up with you four later, I have business to get to right now."

"Of course." Markith agreed.

"And I need to pay a visit to the local shrine," Hymlen informed us before heading off.

"He just doesn't want to move more crates," I grumbled.

"Ha, probably." Kith agreed.

"Well, I'll go get Barthen, then." Silla proclaimed and headed around the building to the front entrance.

"Hey, Vae." Kith voiced, and when did I become Vae? "Think we could take and rebuild that manor up there? I bet it would be a good home base."

Heh! Hehehehe! Hahahahaha! "I don't see why not." I agreed, "It will cost a lot though."

"Eh, worth it." He replied with a grin. "But I guess we need to save Gundren first."

"What's this about Gundren?" A human woman asked as she walked up, Silla nd two others with her.

"The surly old dwarf went and got captured by Goblins." I replied with a smirk, "Embarrassing. But we'll find and free him soon enough."

"Oh my!" She tittered, "His brothers will never let him live that down. Tharden and Nundro should be returning for supplies any day now."

Then she turned to the two unnamed humans and clapped her hands. "Well, Ander and Thistle, get to unloading everything. Hup-hup."

"Ah, actually, some of these goods are for the Coster." Markith informed her, and I nodded along.

"Oh my, well, we'll get it all sorted." She agreed, "Oh, and where are my manners! I'm Elmina Barthen, it's good to meet you. I'll go get your fee, um, four people was it?"

"Yes." I agreed, "Our cleric is at the shrine."

"Of course, well, I'll be right back," Elmina replied with a genuine smile.

"Fine, I'm here Neth, now why did I have to come all the way across town?" Spoke human woman in blue cloth and leather with the symbol of the Lionshield Coster on her chest.

Turning to her, I smiled, and paid the child, Neth… I guess, and replied, "Well, we found some goods of yours in a Goblin gave, and thought you might like them back."

Eyeing the coin I gave Neth, she snorted before speaking. "Well, I'm Linene Graywind of the Lionshield Coster, it's a pleasure to meet you?"

"Vaela Aeaea." I filled in, "And this is Markith Harlock, and Silla. Our Cleric Hymlen is over at the shrine."

"Indeed," She nodded professionally, "And I thank you for your foresight. Bring everything over to my shop, and I'll have a reward ready."

As she walked off, I looked over at the wagon and sigh. "Not that chest, those are my belongings."

"Ah, s-sorry miss!" Thistle was quick to say.

So, we sat there unloading for a while until four humans stalked up, they wore leathers with grimy red cloaks and had hands-on their weapons. The leader sneered at us and asked, "What's this? New goods? And no taxes paid? Now tha-"

I cut him off with a flexing of my will and an ignition of a few of my circuits, and watched two of the… thugs fall to the ground, asleep. The back two. This was clearly taken as a signal by Kith and Silla, with them rushing forward, and striking at the thugs.

The first two fell with a coordinated attack from them, and they quickly dispatched the two sleeping thugs.

As Silla rifled through their things, Markith commented, "Well, looks like we have ourselves a problem to solve."

"True, true." I agreed as I watched Elmina walk up, eyebrow raised.

"Well, that's a mess." She complained even as Markith and Silla started moving them to the side of the road. "Here's your pay. But I would advise you to avoid the Sleeping Giant, the Redbrands like to frequent it."

"Good to know." I replied with a smile, "Looks like everything's unloaded, we should get all of this over to the Coster."

"Of course." Elmina said, "Have a good night, and if you need anything, you know where to find my shop."

"Of course," I replied in platitude, and then we headed over to the Coster.

Unlike Barthen's Provisions which was a huge building, the Coster was a more reasonably sized shop with a house abutting it. The variety of arms and armor was… ok, but nothing was magical. Speaking of, I think I needed to downsize from this staff to something more reasonable… maybe a cane?

There was a wood worker just across the street, hmm. "Silla, can you handle this? I need to head across the street."

"Sure." She agreed, eyeing a bow. "Just need to unload everything and get paid, right? Oh, and we need the bag."

Nodding, I handed the Bag of Holding to her and headed over to the Woodworker's shop. Knocking on the door frame, I walked into the workshop.

"I'm sorry, I'm closing for the day." Came a female voice, turning I found myself looking at a mid-aged woman with straw-colored hair.

"Ah… Well, I'll keep this simple." I replied, pushing just a bit, "Do you have any exotic woods? I'm looking for a stave- well, rod, about cane length."

Frowning, she sighed and replied, "I have some Weirwood. But none of it is cut to a stave of any length."

"Weirwood?" I asked, "Any interesting properties?"

"It's not flammable and glows in the presence of magic." She replied frowning now.

Nodding, I pulled out sixty gold and laid it down on the counter. "Can I see some, I'd like to make a purchase. No need to work it and I won't be damaging any of the wood."

"Well," She capitulated, "I suppose if you're just buying a blank piece it shouldn't take long."

She then led me back to a shelf with some chunks of wood on it. "This is the Weirwood."

Reaching out, I found a piece at about the right length… though it was far too thick. So, I flexed my will and opened a few circuits to use Δομική ανάλυση, and sure enough it started glowing… interesting! Then I used Αλλαγή to remove the amount I needed. Then again to impose the concept of stave upon it, and then length I needed… and, and, and.

When I was done, I opened my eyes and found the Proprietor looking at me with wide eyes. "Well, that's a new one on me. But it's not finished. You're going to need a good varnish for that thing."

Very true. Damn. handing her the rod, I asked "Hold onto this? I'll be right back."

Now she was just amused as I hurried back across the street and grabbed some of the smaller pieces of Glintstone I had in my luggage. Then I returned and used Αλλαγή to fuse veins of Glintstone into the rod. "Ok, how much to have it finished? Something clear, but not super glossy."

Sucking in her lips she looked at the pile of gold on the counter then at the rod. "It will need to be capped too. Add fifteen gold and I'll have it finished and capped by the day after tomorrow."

Nodding, I pulled out the requested gold. "Thank you."

Shaking her head, she smiled, "Named Joan, and thank you. This is the most gold I've made in the last three months."

Ooph.

I kind of wanted it sooner, but this would have to do.

Returning to the others, I received my bag, and… we headed off to get food! Dinner! Not at the Sleeping Giant. The Stone Hill Inn was a large building with a festive atmosphere. The food was good, and the rooms were nice. Not that I slept all that much, being an elf… I didn't really sleep.

Trance, a kind of meditation, had me reliving memories from… elsewhere. Probably the same place the knowledge I had came from. Or, more often than not, I found myself floating in a kaleidoscopic void with no sense of time.

Over the course of the evening though, Markith and Silla managed to get a fair bit of information and leads for some jobs too. Daran Edermath at the Orchard seemed to have something he needed done. Sildar had two things for us, a big payout for finding and clearing the Cragmaw Castle, and a lesser payout for ending the Redbrand threat. And there was even some kind of job to clear the roads. Then Hymlen found something as well, the local priestess Sister Garaele wanted us to go talk to a Banshee. Fun.

Over breakfast, Markith mentioned, "Oh, and some kid named Carp found some kind of secret entrance to the Redbrand base."

"Huh, who names their kid after a fish?" I asked, actually wondering.

My answer was shrugs all around.

"Guess that's where we're headed then." I grumbled, "Before they come at us in force."

"Yeah," Hymlen muttered, "Oh, I also heard that one of the local woodcarvers was provoked into a fight, then murdered by the Redbrand. His wife, daughter, and son have gone missing."

"Wonderful." I cursed as I got up. "Let's get to it then."

 

[Kerashana]

The Alderleaf Farm was not a Hobbit hole, despite the Alderleaf being Halflings. The field space they worked was easily the largest in town, and really hit home the trope of Halflings working hard and playing hard.

It wasn't hard to find Qelline Alderleaf, the matron of the family, out in the fields working.

"Hail!" Hymlen called out as we approached, and the Halfling woman stood from where she was bent over and stretched, before turning to look at us.

"Aye? How can I help you tall folk?" She called out as she headed over to us.

"Well, Missus." Hymlen continued, using his Cleric charms or something. "We've heard your son might have found some way into the Redbrand base?"

"Oh, Golden Harvest! That boy…" She grumbled for a moment, then frowned at us. "Why do ya wanna know?"

"Eh, they're a problem," I spoke up, cutting into the conversation. "We solve problems."

She let out an indelicate snort, "Adventurers. Should have known. Still, if you're going to make this town safe again…"

Turning she cupped her hands together can called out, "Carp!"

Eventually, a Spirited and precocious halfling lad came running up. "Yes, ma?"

"These people say you might know something about the Redbrand?" Qelline demanded.

"O-oh. Um, yes, Ma." Carp replied with that hand caught in the cookie jar tone kids have. "Um, well, I was playing in the woods," He pointed northeast ish. "When I found this secret tunnel! Then a couple of those bad men came out of it with a couple of scary men… they looked like bandits! But they didn't see me, I'm really sneaky!"

Nodding, Silla asked, "Can you give us directions?"

"Oh yeah!" Carp agreed and immediately provided the directions.

"Now, Carp," Qellina growled out. "You're grounded. Come along, we have work in the field to get to."

Shaking my head, I tuned out her berating him for not informing her so they could be on guard- blah, blah.

"Well, that gives us a starting point," Hymlen commented. "Shall we?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cave was where Carp said, more or less. But Markith stopped us outside it and asked, "Can we please have a light this time!"

"It's the base of human thugs, more than likely, it's lit. but sure." I grumbled, "It only makes us huge targets."

"Withering. Fine, fine. But if it's too dark in there I'm lighting a torch." Kith complained.

"That sounds fair," Hymlen spoke up. "Shall we?"

Walking through the tunnel, a moderately long one, we came out into a natural cavern with the faint scent of decaying flesh. A large crevasse with sloped walls divided the cavern with two small bridges across it at either end.

Leading everyone into the cavern, I casually crossed the southern bridge, and easily found the Nothic hiding in this cavern, well, hiding behind a pillar. Smirking, I sent off an αστέρια, to crash into it, taking everyone by surprise.

Kith didn't miss a beat, moving forward as he drew his sword and shield, and clumsily struck out at the Nothic.

And what is a Nothic you ask? It's a vaguely frog-ish aberration with large claws, an eye almost as big as its head, and the ability to read minds.

But to my surprise, instead of attacking Kith, the Nothic reached out and pushed him off the ledge he was standing on, and down into the crevasse! At the same time, Silla bolted past me, bow coming up and firing at the Nothic, who sprouted an arrow from its shoulder. While, at the same time, Hymlen moved in and I could hear the meaty smack of his mace slamming into flesh.

Then I had gathered the power needed and fired off a Δόρυ Φωτός, seeming to catch the creature off guard. Even while Kith flailed around trying to get out of the crevasse.

Suddenly, the Nothic turned to look at me, and a beam of energy exploded out from its by and slammed into my chest like a javelin, entropic power biting into me. But it suffered for this as Silla put another arrow directly into it and Hymlen caved in the back of it's skull.

"T-tails! That was a Nothic!" Hymlen didn't quite shout.

"A what?" Silla asked, even as Kith kept trying to climb out… oh right!

"Kith, look around down there," I called down, "I bet this thing had some hidden loot!"

"Sure." He agreed, turning to look around. "But really, what's a Nothic?"

"An aberration," Hymlen replied, "Wizards twisted by curses left by Vecna."

"Well, shyt," Silla grumbled, eyeing me warily.

I just snorted and followed along with Kith as he worked his way down the length of the crevasse.

"Oh! I found something!" He called up, ducking under the northern bridge. When he came back out, he had a chest in his arms, "Can you toss down a rope?"

Nodding, I fished the silk rope I had out of my bag of holding, and tossed an end down to him, the other end, I kept hold of as I walked around a nearby stone pillar. Not completely around it, and it was far too big and poorly placed for that, but it made anchoring myself easier, and just in time too, as Kith tugged on it. Then there was weight on the rope as he climbed out, dragging the chest.

"There's a lot of silver and gold in here," He said as he set the chest down, "Some gems too, and a couple of potions. And a fancy sword."

Walking over, I nodded, frowning, "Let me see the potions and that sword."

"I'll start counting out the coins then." Silla declared, even as Kith handed over the requested items.

Sitting down, I opened my circuits and started using Δομική ανάλυση to delve into the items, or into their history in this case. "Potion of Healing, Potion of Climbing, and a Potion of Growth. The sword is… Talon, a magical sword wielded by someone called the Black Hawk."

"Really?" Hymlen asked, "That's interesting, the Black Hawk, Aldith Tresendar, was a great knight. No one ever found out his fate."

"He died, it sucked." I replied with a shrug, "Now who gets what potion?"

"Well, what do they do?" Kith asked, and I sighed.

Then I replied, "The Potion of Growth will enlarge you for a few hours, and the Potion of Climbing… makes you climb real good."

"Well, I'll take the Potion of Climbing," Silla spoke up, "And you should probably use that Potion of Healing."

"Agreed," Hymlen agreed, "And the Potion of Growth should go to Kith. He can use it when we find ourselves fighting something big."

Shrugging, I took the potion and slowly drank it, letting the healing energies flow into me.

"Um, what about this?" Kith asked, holding up a wooden pendant shaped like a unicorn's head.

Rolling my eyes, I reached over and took it for a moment… Huh. "Huh, this belonged to Thel Dendrar. The murdered woodcarver. Hold onto it for now, we might need it as proof or just to return it to his family… assuming they're still alive."

Taking it back, Kith tucked it into a pouch. "Right. Which way now?"

Glassy or minions… hmm. Minions.

Why don't we just see what's up there?" I asked, pointing at the worked area… North? Yeah, north of us. Flagstone door, and fancy bricked walls. But this was just a storage room, barrels, and crates all over the place.

"Oh, Beaver pelts." Silla cheers, showing me a pile of them, "Can you fit them in your bag for now?"

With a sigh, I did that and pointed at the two secret doors, or where I knew they were. "Secret doors, there and there. Do we want to see where they lead?"

"Hmm," Hymlen muttered, opening the southern one. "We might as well."

Well, Leader, it is. Now, alive, or dead? No, wizards are bad enough, I don't feel like trying to keep him contained. Besides, he leads a merry band of murderers and cutthroats.

Nodding, I followed and soon found myself just behind Silla; 'In case there were traps.' Really, I would have to teach these kids about party order.

Silla quietly opened the other secret door in this passage, and immediately took a step forward and struck out with her saber. Cleaving a large wound on the back of a man, Glasstaff, not that she knew. And she kept moving to make room in the small room for us.

The man, human, was dressed in fancy robes with a well-trimmed dark beard and a dusky glass staff leaning against the desk he was reading at.

Snorting, I stepped forward and struck out with the green-blue blade of my ξίφος. It was a little awkward, what with having to maneuver a staff, but I watched dispassionately as he lost a hand, even as he tried to stand and back away.

"Ah! What are-" Glasstaf cried out and he grabbed his hand. Disappearing in a cloud of mist, he reappeared by the door, without his staff, I might add, and struggled through a few phrases and a quick hand gesture. Then three darts of magical energy, not Prana I might add, shot off and slammed into me and Silla.

Even as he turned and started fumbling at the door, Silla crossed the space to him and shoved her sword through his back… and the fight was over. Just as Kith and Hym came rushing into the room.

"What- oh… well, damn," Kith muttered, even as I stumbled over to the bed and dropped onto it.

Opening all of my circuits, I took the time to heal myself but stopped as soon as that was done. The difference between this time and last time? I wasn't healing a massive gut wound, and I was only healing myself. Well, there was also the strengthening of my circuits…

"Well, that was quick," Silla commented as she rifled through his belongings. "Do you want the spellbook?"

"Yes." I agreed, readily.

"Oh, this looks important," Kith called over from the desk, he was holding up a letter with a cracked wax seal in the shape of a spider. "Real subtle, don't you think?"

With a snort, he cracked it open and began to read.

~~
Lord Albrek,

My spies in Neverwinter tell me that strangers are due to arrive in Phandalin. They could be working for the dwarves. Capture them if you can, kill them if you must, but don't allow them to upset our plans. See that any dwarven maps in their possession are delivered to me with haste.

I'm counting on you, Iarno. Don't disappoint me.
~~

"Well," I grunted, "We'll need to take this corpse to Sildar then. It is that man he's been looking for."

"Probably," Kith grunted, tossing me the letter, which went into my bag.

"Oh, now we're talking," Silla muttered, as she opened the sturdy trunk at the end of the bed. "Coins and loot!"

The loot was coins and two spell scrolls, Hold Person and Fireball. I was unsure how useful scrolls would be, aside from a one-time casting, but it was something to look into for sure.

Then we moved on to the next room, a workshop, of the chemic kind. With the alembics, retorts, distillation coils, and other alchemical devices, all of them stewing and bubbling away. I would guess Alchemic. Useful in it's way.

Of course, there were plenty of books and papers scattered around. Picking up a few, I smiled as I skimmed them. Introductory texts to Alchemy! I could expand my herbalism. Useful, maybe… shit, how much of this would remain useful in the wider worlds?

"Anyone know Dwarvish?" Hym asked, holding up a book. Journal maybe?

With a round of nopes, he sighed and stashed it away in his pack.

Walking over to the work table, I picked up three jars, looking them over before stuffing them into my bag. They might be useful, maybe.

Shaking his head, Markith opened the other door, which led to a hallway with a door directly across from it. And with a shrug, walked over and opened the door… fucking Fighters.

"Oh." He muttered, then he rushed in, like the Fighter he was; Hymlen hurrying right behind him. While Silla and I took up position to try and shoot through the doors.

My Δόρυ Φωτός, shot out, but one of the human thugs managed to dodge it, moving to put his face in the path of Silla's arrow. Needless to say, he was now a corpse.

With an effort of will, I appeared in the room, in a burst of starlight. The first thing I noticed was Kith striking one of the thugs, then I breathed out my autohypnotic memetic, Δόρυ Φωτός, and blasted the thug on the far right. At the same time as I was releasing my cantrip, Silla slipped into between Kith and the thug he was fighting, somehow gutting him and moving on without getting hit.

It was fairly impressive.

Then Kith somehow pirouetted in chainmail and slashed at another thug. He missed, what, you expect a ridiculous move like that to work? Not that the Thug's return attack did much better, you would think the boy didn't know how swords worked. Or it might have been Hymlen beaning him in the face… yeah, it was probably that.

Giving a reprise of the Δόρυ Φωτός, I watched as Silla took the head off of mace-face, and Hymlen slammed his mace into the same target I chose. Who's to say who got the kill?

Panting lightly, Kith looked around as he flicked the blood off this sword. "Oops?"

Shaking my head, I held back the more scathing comments I had and instead went with. "You should know better than to just blindly walk into a room."

"Well, it worked out?" Hymlen asked with a shrug. "Besides, we've killed the leader, do we just… leave?"

"I'm not leaving these thugs to choose a new leader and reorganize." I replied, "Besides, we need to see if the missing family is here."

"R-right." He nodded slowly, "Right, we do."

Opening the door to the next hall, I looked down it and queried my fuzzy memories, of maybe knowledge would be better? Well, I recalled what I could. Um… bugbears? Yeah.

Waving the others to follow me, I started thinking about the best way to… yeah, that would do. "Hym, stand to the side of the door, I'll stand on the stairs, Silla, you're in the hall, and Kith will open the door and step back. If there's anything hostile in there, we can pull it into a kill zone."

"Sounds good," The Cleric agreed, with the other two nodding.

Once we were in position, Kith pulled the door open and took several steps back, bringing his shield up defensively. I watched as an arrow streaked past my small view, and there was a bellow of anger and sounds of movement.

Bugbears, hairy ugly things, nominally humanoid with flat almost simian faces. This one came barreling out of the room slamming it's crude mace into the wall next to Kith. But I could hear what was probably more piling up at the door and struggling to get at us. Did I mention they were dumb? Well, the average US Army recruit was more intelligent than them.

No, wait, what was the 'US'... oh, huh… er… These memories were very frustrating. Useful, but frustrating.

And so, we beat on this first Bugbear, Kith taking off an arm in the process, causing it to start screaming in pain, and the others behind it to pause, then back up out of the immediate doorway. Even as we finished off their companion.

"Shyt, what now?" Kith called over and… Shyt? Huh, anyways.

I didn't expect this, hmm. "Sweep and clear! Υπνος."

My keen hearing caught the sound of a Bugbear muttering something. "Huh? Mea kahl dorm? Ou!" Even as Hymlen moved forward, and into the room. Then there was a flash of light accompanied by an odd echoing word, followed by a scream of pain.

Kith didn't hesitate to rush in, Talon swinging and an arrow flying past him, with Silla taking up a position at the door.

Stepping down the stairs, I let loose one of my Δόρυ Φωτός at the only Bugbear I could see. And nearly had a shit fit when my mystery flickered weakly!

"No hurt Droop!" This was followed by the meaty sound of Hymlen hitting something with his mace and a growl of pain. What! Being an Elf is great, I don't need to sleep for more than four hours, I'll live longer than almost any other race, and of course, I have great hearing and eyesight.

"Wilting!" Kith cried out, then, "Silla, Hym."

What was going on? Well, I couldn't tell, so I tried my Δόρυ Φωτός yet again and was still dissatisfied by how weak it was. There had to be something I was doing wrong.

Spinning around, Kith rammed his sword into the gut of the Bugbear behind him, buying Silla enough time to slip past and… do whatever.

Moving into the doorway, I saw Hym was down, with a Bugbear looming above him, and Silla trying to draw its attention away.

Right! Reaching out, with intent and will, I channeled the Mystery of healing I had been taught. "διορθώνω." And with that utterance, Hymlen's body jolted as something popped back into place and he struggled to his feet, mace swinging.

The Bugbear never had a chance, and if you're wondering? I don't think anyone would survive having a mace swung up between their legs with enough force to lift a three hundred pound, this is an estimate, Bugber off its feet by a couple of inches. And while the last Bugbear and Kith cringed in sympathy, Silla put an arrow in the Goblinion.

"No hurt Droop! No hurt!" The singed Gobo cried from under one of the beds in the room. "D-Droop not Cragmaw! Let Droop go! Droop tell you what know?"

Looking at the others, I nodded. "Alright, you just wait here."

Then I started dragging the corpses out into the hall, Kith and Silla quickly helping. Well, Silla was stripping them of whatever was useful. But once that was done, I took a few minutes to work up the cleaning Mystery I knew to a point where it could wash over the room and clean everything, and everyone. It made cleaning a workshop and home much more manageable.

"Ah! Ah! D-Droop is clean!" The Gobo exclaimed, "Droop no like!"

Go figure. "Well everyone, let's take a short rest while Droop here tells us what he knows," I suggested, and Droop nodded petulantly.

"Ok, first," Silla asked, "Where's Cragmaw Castle?"

"Uh, North. Droop not knowing." The Gobo explained unhelpfully. Still, it narrowed things down, some.

"Do you know the layout of this place? Are there any traps?" I asked, because, well, I knew there was one.

"Yups!" He agreed, and I pulled out a paper, ink, and pen.

"Draw a map as best you can," I instructed the Gobo, and he hesitantly took the things and with his tongue poking out of his mouth started drawing lines.

I have to admit, I was surprised, Droop subverted expectations by drawing clean, crisp likes, and not childish scrawl.

While this was going on, I slowly tapped my circuits and started healing Kith and Hym as much as I could without causing problems for myself, but while I worked, I started going over my blending of mysteries and spells. I think I was doing that conversion wrong? So if I…

Eventually, Droop finished and we were more or less ready to go.

Taking my things back, I packed them away and looked over the map. Yup, just what I remembered… Ded? "Droop, what does this mean?"

He looked at the map then mimed a listless shuffling walk, "Ded things."

Oh, duh. "Undead."

Nodding vigorously, Droop asked, "Can's Droop goes now?"

Nodding, I led the Goblin to the tunnel out, "Be careful of these strange Gobos wandering around."

"Droops will." He declared and hurried off.

Returning to the others I sighed, "Well, that was a helpful Gobo."

"Not sure we should have let it live." Kith muttered, "How many people has it killed?"

"At a guess, not many." Hymlen replied, "It fainted at the start of combat."

"True," Kith grumbled. "So, shall we?"

And indeed we did! Did what? Well, we moved on to the murdering of helpless bandits. Ok, not so helpless, and they are assholes so…

Leading everyone east, I opened the secret door, from the not-secret side, and headed into the room. If my memory was correct… there should be a bag in the water somewhere.

Anyway, this room was rather tall, with a water cistern in the middle against the western wall, and stairs leading up to a landing, that led up more stairs to another landing with a door. There were also barrels scattered around.

Frowning, I used Δομική ανάλυση on the cistern before nodding and reaching in to pull out the bag. It was cleverly hidden so you couldn't see it above water.

"What did you find?" Turning I found Silla looking at the bag I was holding.

"Glasstaff's bug-out kit, I would guess," I replied with a shrug.

"Spring Blossoms!" She cheered and… what kind of cheer was that?

Chuckling, Kith called over, "Well, let's be about this Red Harvest then."

What did that even… oh, I think I get it.

We stacked up at the door, and the moment Markith opened it, Silla loosed an arrow and nailed a thug to the wall. Really, what was up with her archery?! This was insane accuracy. But Kith charged in and took a swing at one of the thugs, Talon biting deep into him. Meanwhile, Hymlen was right on his heels, and with a wide swing, he slammed his mace into the side of another thug's head.

Not that Silla or myself were far behind, another arrow flew from her bow, and me finally able to get a clear target. And my beam surged in power and slammed into the thug, punching a hole in his chest.

"Well, that was easy." Kith proclaimed, "I guess we already killed all the hard stuff.

I turned to glare at Kith for tempting the universe. "Let's go, the next hall has a trap… or we could go around… Hey, what do you guys think?"

They gathered around the map with me, looking over the next room, or really, the hall with the pitfall and the room after it. There was a double door on this side, allowing for more people to act, or we could use the single hallway.

"The Hallway." Markith stated, "Undead are supposed to be pretty stupid right?"

"Good point." Hymlen agreed with a nod, "And we can check this room with the sword symbol drawn on it."

Hmm… actually… "Um, I have… a strange request?" I voiced, biting a lip. "Could we keep one of them, not dead? For a bit at least? I want to study it a bit."

The other three shared a look before Hymlen asked, "Why?"

"Well, my Magecraft… er, magic, works by studying Mysteries, or phenomena if you will." I explained, "The more I understand, the more I can do."

Again they shared a look, before Silla spoke up, "Like some kind of Wizard? But aren't you a Warlock?"

What now? "Er, no? I'm a Magus, a user of Magecraft."

"Well, I don't see why not." Markith commented, "If we have a chance to."

The others nodded while frowning, but I guess that answers that? But we walked all the way around the hideout, and through the hidden door into a small hallway with two doors in it.

Silla immediately opened the door across from us, as we had the key for it, taken from Glasstaff. Inside were racks of weapons lining the walls, spears, shortswords, crossbows, and a dozen dirty red cloaks hanging from hooks.

Silla sagged in disappointment, but we quickly filled my bag with the weapons. Hymlen waited at the other door, but it didn't take us long, and he was soon opening the door and bringing us face to face with a bunch of skeletons. Or well, then, I was stuck waiting in the Armory, the hallway was just that short.

Finally with the hallway clear, I was able to move up and get a look, so I was surprised to find all the- well, skeletons backed against the far wall. That was a bit of an understatement.

Still, it didn't stop me from firing off what was becoming… no, what was, my signature cantrip. The beam of Prana slammed into the skeleton and wrecked its already damaged armor.

I faltered a moment though when Hymlen rushed up to them and missed with his mace, I guess I had just gotten used to him always hitting. But to my surprise, these skeletons, the ones not corning against the far wall, were pretty fast with smooth articulation.

Silla quickly moved to the side, clearing the doorway, and putting an arrow in the skull of one skeleton as she did. At about the same time, Markith brought Talon down on the skeleton he was fighting and shattered most of its ribs as he went. Needless to say, the skeleton hit the ground unmoving.

With another utterance, I sent another beam to punch into a skeleton and was surprised when it was blasted against the wall and stopped moving. I think I might have started to figure out the variables I was getting wrong!

Of course, then Hymlen strode forward and crushed a skeleton with a single swing from his mace and I had to wonder if they were just that weak. Of course, the last two continued to cower from whatever Hymlen had done, but it sure was making this easy!

From there it was easy to kill the other skeletons and leave one cowering in a corner. Pulling out my notebook, I started taking notes and observations as I approached. Then with some help from Markith, who managed to pin it, I started running diagnostic spells over and through it. What I was getting back was a wealth of information, mainly focused on entropic energies and the binding of residual echoes of a soul. Fascinating stuff!

But I didn't have all the time in the world, I knew what was in the last room, so after building the foundation for future research, I nodded and backed away, letting Hymlen crush its skull and break the controlling force and central binding.

Now, I know, 'What did this room actually look like?' Well, it was thick with dust, decorated with faux columns at about every ten feet. The double doors at the far side of the room were copper-plated and green with age. Embossed on the doors was a mournful angel.

Anyways, we gathered around the last door, and-

Thugs! Called it, ha!

Markith opened the door only to come face to face with a thug, and take a slash across his chest. It was bad enough that his retaliation clipped the doorframe and ended up missing completely. Hymlen of course did his thing, and spoke some strange word that tugged at the back of my brain, healing Kith, and then followed it with a few words in the same language that had a ball of bright light slamming out and into the thug's face. Which I followed up with my spear, the beam punching through the thug's head and… making a bit of a mess.

Oops?

Markith just shrugged and strode into the room, spinning around to face the door and almost slipping on the brain matter. Even as Hymlen strode into the room, backhanding with his mace… you know what? Fuck this.

With a flex of will, I muttered, "Υπνος." And frowned as I felt only one being fall under my spell. Damn, this swingy shit! It was like I needed to rebuild every spell I knew!

Oh… I probably did. Mysteries aren't spells, and there were problems with the conversion matrix. Probably a case-by-case thing too. Just great.

Blinking, I realized I'd lost track of Silla, getting distracted as I was.

"I-I surrender!" Came out of the room… and well. I guess the fight was over.

Walking into the last room, holding cells, I found Markith tying up the thug, and Silla letting out the three captives.

"Thank you, thank you!" There were all going on, and on.

"Kith, that amulet?" I called over as I watched the proceedings.

Finishing, he stepped back and turned to me. "Yeah?" But he was also pulling it out of a pouch.

Taking it from him, I walked over to the oldest of the three, the mother obviously, and handed it over. "Does this look familiar?"

Eyes going wide, she took it and held it to her chest whispering desperate denials. "I-I don't have anything to repay you with… but… I can tell you where a valuable heirloom is! If it's still there, it's all yours. It's not like we could go and retrieve it."

My three companions shared a conflicted look, but I smirked and replied, "We'd be more than happy to retrieve it." And now my companions were frowning! Ha!

The woman, Mirna, proceeded to tell us about Thundertree and where the necklace was hidden. She also mentioned that an old Druid lived there.

"Would they know where Cragmaw Castle is?" Silla spoke up upon hearing this.

"Um… maybe? Reidoth knows a lot of things." She replied with a shrug, but Yahtzee! This would be a good excuse to go kill a Green!

"Well, we're done here, so… let us just collect a corpse, and we'll walk you back to town." I proclaimed, and so it was.

There wasn't much fanfare, but Qellina was surprised and happy to see them back alive.

 

[Kerashana]

A/N: Exhibit A; The disfunction in even good parties!
But really, this chap was... bleh. Feels more like filler to me, but well, some things important happened near the end, so whatever. Hope people don't hate it as much as I do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Walking into the Town Hall, we found Sildar, and showed him the corpse of Glasstaff.

"That's Iarno." Sildar declared upon seeing the corpse, "That… does not bode well. I will need to send some letters. Regardless, here is two hundred gold for removing the Redbrand threat."

"Do you have any maps of the area?" Silla asked, "I want to see where Thundertree is."

"Oh? Well, I don't see why not." He agreed and led us to a side room where there was a map of the area up on the wall.

And Silla fell too, updating the party map. Useful, and that ruin there looked to be Cragmaw… heh. Too bad I want to see that Druid.

"Well, I got some notes to go over, and I think we could use tomorrow to prepare for heading back out?" I stated and asked. "Oh, and here," I said, pulling out the letter.

"Right! And yes, I agree," Markith spoke up, "I want to see about procuring that manor."

"Really now?" Sildar asked as I left the room.

"Yes well-" Markith began to reply before the door closed and I stopped caring to keep listening.

Returning to the woodworker, I found Joan talking with Mirna. So, I waited for them to finish before stepping forward. "Joan, I know you probably aren't finished with the finish, but I wanted to buy four more blanks and get them finished as well."

Ah, Vaela, you're back." She greeted, "I can agree to that, but only if you don't add in the stone, whatever that was. It makes things a lot harder."

Oh. Well, ok. "Sure, I'll leave them with you until they're finished, and pick them up next time I'm in town."

"Alright…" She seemed to be doing some mental math, "Four blanks… so, three hundred gold."

Fuck, what? No, wait! This is back in the times of haggling! "Two hundred, no way it's worth all that."

"Bah, getting Weirwood is harder than you think! No way I can let it go for less than two sixty." She rebutted.

Hmm… "Two twenty and I'll shape some boards for you."

She paused, frowning at me, before nodding. "Done."

So, I spent about half an hour slowly turning a log into a bunch of boards. Boring work, but I bet I could make good money doing it.

Smiling, Joan caught me on my way out, holding my cane. "It's not fully dry yet, but all you need to do is leave it out tonight. It should be completely cured by tomorrow morning."

"It just needs to soak into the wood?" I asked, just to make sure, and at her nod, I took the cane and headed off to my room. Well, the room I was sharing with Silla.

Once there, I used Αλλαγή to cause the wood to suck up the varnish and also to dry and harden the tacky outer layer.

Then I put it aside and pulled out the Glasstaff we had gotten. A Mystic Code! No!A real magic item!

I ended up studying it late into the night, even after Silla returned and went to bed. It was frustrating, fascinating, and was opening up a whole new horizon! It had some concept alignment, but it all appeared to be incidental. Mystic Codes were all about aligning concepts. Magic items seemed all about energy matrices. I was already seeing how I could overlap the two for better items!

I mean, my cane, a Glintstone Cane, if you will, was an incidental magic item. It was naturally magically active, so would empower my Mysteries if cast through it. Spells? Eh, I wasn't sure of the difference yet. Though there definitely was one.

Shaking my head, I closed my eyes and let my reverie take me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So," Hymlen opened with over breakfast, "I found someone who could read that journal." He motioned towards the bartender, "And it had some useful information, like inside the mines there's some kind of magical forge called the Forge of Spells. But it also mentions that there's a magic mace there, and I want to call dibs."

"As long as I get to study it a bit, sure." I agreed, and the others nodded along, though I could see them giving me odd looks, "Speaking of, Kith let me see your sword for a few hours."

He was quiet for a moment before he sighed, "Sure. We have some people to talk to today, so we won't be leaving until tomorrow at the earliest. Also, the manor is ours! And the Lord's Alliance has agreed to subsidize some of the cost to repair it! I just have to be their representative in this area."

Huh, that was neat!

"Well, I'm making a list of the jobs we've picked up and keeping track of them." Silla put in, "I figure we should keep a record so we don't forget anything."

"Good idea." Hymlen agreed. "So, shall we?"

Taking Talon for a grumbling Markith, I went back up to my room and continued my research! It was fascinating how magical energies were woven together like this! So much like a more stable and long-lasting Ενίσχυση.

By the time everyone was back, and we were eating dinner, I had some pretty in-depth diagrams, and a bunch of notes! This was…

Oh, wow… I really was a Magus! Discovering new Mysteries and Arcane Lore really got me going! I couldn't wait for a chance to try and enchant something! Maybe when we have another few days free!

The Root could go fuck itself though.

While we were eating dinner, Markith asked, "So, did you figure anything out?"

Huh… did I? Well, "Maybe? In theory, I could make an item that emulates the enchantment on your sword. But I'm not sure if I could anchor it long-term right now."

"Wilted fields," He grumbled, "I was hoping for magic armor."

"Pretty sure we all were." Silla commensurate. "Now, to more immediate topics. Where do we head when we leave town? Thundertree is all the way back towards Neverwinter… and the rest of our jobs are out East along the Triboar Trail."

"Map?" I asked, and she handed it over… hmm, if I remember, the well and Tor are supposed to be in the hills somewhere… "Do we have an idea of where to search? Because the best I can think of is to hit Agatha's, then look for the other places. Since we know where she is."

"Why not go straight for Thundertree?" Markith asked with a frown.

"Well, we'll be collecting loot. We might want to try and buy some magic items in Neverwinter while we're there, right?" I explained my thinking.

"That's actually a very good point." Hymlen agreed.

Sighing, Markith nodded. "Alright, so, we head east tomorrow."

As we finished, I headed outside to see if I could make sense of this ability to Teleport I suddenly had. It took some trial and error, but I managed to pin down the mechanism. A metaphysical organ, not unlike how my Circuits existed, but this also opened up a new problem. That meant I wouldn't be able to fuel it with my Circuits, or maybe… Well, it would have to wait for another day, I couldn't get it to work anymore tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first day of travel was quiet enough, and we made good time. The night? Not so much, a group of three mosquito bats called Stirge attacked during my watch. But well, there's nothing to really talk about as they died to what amounted to a stiff breeze.

Ok, look, I cast sleep, then stabbed them. Happy?

We ran into what I guess was the rest of their swarm later the next day, to much the same result. The next night and day were just as quiet until the day we reached Agatha. On the road, the two dumbest Bugbears chose to attack us, instead of run for their lives. You can imagine how well that went.

Now, Agatha? Well, we passed through the abandoned town of Conyberry, a depressing place with buildings in ruin, and into the Neverwinter Woods.

This part of the forest was dark, and still with the trail winding deep into it. I could see as my companions started to act on the sense of foreboding this place gave off, but I was far more interested in what was obviously a naturally formed territory. A kind of Bounded Field, mostly. But for being the domain of a powerful undead? It was surprisingly verdant, with heavy vine cover, and thick layers of moss.

It wasn't long until we found ourselves coming into view of a dome made from live branches and vines, the doorway low and crude.

"Well, it's no Aeaea, but it's not terrible." I muttered, then asked, "So, again, what are we here for?"

Hymlen took in a shaky breath and replied, "Sister Garaele asked me to try and gain some information. To try to convince Agatha to tell me what she knows about the location of Bowgentle's spellbook." He reached into a pouch and pulled out a fine silver comb with jewels encrusted into it. "I'm to give her this to help persuade her?"

With a sigh, I reached out and plucked the comb from his hands. "You're shaking in your boots, just stay near the doorway with the others. Let me handle this."

"Y-you think you can handle this?" Silla asked, chewing on her lip.

With a sigh, I explained, "My teacher was a goddess. What do you think?"

That earned me wide-eyed looks from all three of my companions, and I couldn't help but wonder how we hadn't gone our separate ways. Maybe we just had the right chemistry going on?

With a small shake of my head, I turned and walked into the dome.

It was… interesting, the branches were woven together, often forming shelves. Of worked wood, there was a nice table, a beautiful chest, and a loveseat of sorts. I assumed they were supposed to be in some Elven style or something.

Walking around, I didn't touch anything, but couldn't help but frown at the gathering dust. "Μπάνισε βρωμιά."

Then I knelt down by the love seat… sette? Longue? Anyway, by the half couch, and muttered, "Επισκευή." And watched it slowly return to pristine condition.

Standing back up, I turned, just in time, to see the figure of a pale woman appear in the air, just blam, there! The sense of dread it was giving off was a four on the Κίρκη scale, so not bad. The figure was rapidly taking form into that of an Elven woman with long golden hair and a once impressive robe now in tatters along the edges. Both her hair and robe were flowing in a non-existent breeze too. A very nice effect.

Her face was set in a hateful expression as she spoke but quickly turned into one of mild confusion. "Foolish mortals. What do you want here? Do you not know- What… what did you do to my bower?"

"I banished the dust and repaired your Sette." I replied, "I came here to offer you this comb and ask a question. I figured the least I could do for your time was to clean a little."

She was silent for a long moment, before nodding to herself. "I am often called Agatha. That will do for a name. You are welcome to stay briefly, and ask your question."

Half-bowing, I replied, "I am Vaela Aeaea, Apprentice to Κίρκη. Please accept this gift."

She took the comb from my hand, examining it. "I accept."

Silence stretched for a moment, but I was quick to fill it before she grew bored with me. "I have two questions, three if you want to be technical. Do you know where Bowgentle's spellbook is? And where are the 'Old Owl Well' and 'Wyvern Tor'?"

She frowned, looking up, but replied, "I traded the book to a necromancer named Tsernoth from the city of Iriaebor more than a century ago. Now, why do you wish to know where these locations are?"

"To remove the… let's call it trouble, that's moved into those areas," I replied, but honestly, I wasn't expecting much.

"Bring me your map." She replied, and I was truly surprised she refused to help. Maybe it was… was it a Thayen? Or just a wizard at the well? Eh.

"Of course." I agreed, and quickly, but calmly walked over to the doorway and stuck my head out. Silla was already there, waiting, map in hand. So I took it and returned.

Looking at the map, she scowled, but two dark green spots appeared on it. "There, now I wish for peace, leave me."

Folding the map, I turned to leave but stopped at the door and frowned, well… why not? "Just an idea, have you thought of trying a ritual to force incarnate you? Well, I guess it doesn't matter. Have a pleasant day."

I didn't look back as I hurried out, and I shared what I was told with the others, who had been listening in. Rude. As we left.

None of them wanted to spend the night in the forest, so we force marched back to Conyberry, and camped there, before heading off the next day for Old Owl Well.

Nearing the well, I got my first look at the crumbling tower, and I had to sigh. Magic lore? In a place like this? You know, what? "Twenty gold it's a Red Wizard of Thay."

"A who?" Markith asked, frowning.

The other two didn't look much more enlightened. Wonderful.

"Never mind," I grumbled.

"Do you think we need to know?" Hymlen asked, even as we started up the small hill to the ruins.

"Thay is known for it's Necromancers and such," I replied.

"Huh, well, I suppose we can't leave a Necromancer free to roam these parts," Markith spoke his thoughts.

Shaking my head, I quickened my step for a moment and called out, "Hail to the camp!"

There was a moment of nothing, and then corpses started shambling out of the ruins of the tower, and there was movement from the tent, followed by a call of, "Hold."

All the Zombies froze in place, unmoving, but ready.

"Who goes there?" The man asked as he turned towards us. Bald, check. Tattoo on head? Check. Red Robes, check.

"A band of travelers asked to see what was going on here. Prospectors have been talking about undead attacking anyone who gets near here." I replied, "Seems kind of rude, what with the best source of fresh water being here."

"Ah, hmm. A fair point." He muttered, then asked, "Now that you know, what do you plan to do?"

"Honestly, I'm kind of torn," I replied, frustrated, I didn't want to let the Red Wizard survive on principal alone! But he didn't seem like a terrible person. "Eh, we weren't asked to kill you or anything, just maybe, try not to attack prospecters? Also, probably a better idea to use an Earth Elemental to sweep the ground of man-made things."

He opened his mouth before closing it and then biting out, "Broken Skull. Why didn't I think of that." Shaking his head, he refocused on me, "Actually, perhaps we can come to some kind of agreement about a job?"

"Oh?" I asked because I wasn't sure where this was going! Yay!?

"Yes-" He was interrupted as Silla yelled, "To the Shadows with this!" And loosed an arrow into him.

Wonderful, just… wonderful! Did these companions of mine not understand subtlety?

But I guess we were doing this! Fuck!

At least they were ungrouping us! Rushing off in different directions. Silla to the west, just outside the crumbling walls, Markith right up in the unnamed mage's face and stabbing him. While Hymlen just hit him with a guiding bolt, I guess, the glowing orb of light.

My part knew to geek the wizard… I'm not sure how to feel about that. Being the castery type that would get focused down and all.

And suddenly, the zombies started moving! Ho shit! That Zombie Apocalypse vibe is strong!

Stabbing out with my new cane, I punched my blade of… energy into the zombie, and nearly sliced it in half! Woo! Of course, then I teleported the fuck out of there!

"Shyt!" Silla cursed, "This was a bad idea!"

Wait! I had that scroll! Yes! Now I just needed a moment to use it!

Fumbling it out, I watched as Silla put an arrow into the zombie I nearly killed and finished it off, and Kith left a large gash in another.

"Hym! Turn! For the Grace of the Harvest! Turn!" Kith called out, and Hymlen held up some kind of symbol, and spoke some words… and most of the Zombies started to run. Those that didn't swarmed Hymlen, but just couldn't seem to hit him.

Silla dropped another Zombie, and it seemed like I wasn't going to need that Scroll just yet. Kith and Hym were hammering on another zombie, and at this point, I'll just jump forward. We killed the Zombies. Hymlen's ability to 'Turn Undead' proving to be a 'Gods Send' here. It didn't last quite long enough, but by the time it ended, they were scattered and mostly dead.

What we found in the Red Wizard's belongings? Well, it was what I wanted, but I was trying to be smart about things, not murder it all. Oh well.

As Silla was dividing the loot, I quickly called dibs on the ring! It was definitely something I wanted, and wanted to study! A 'Ring of Protection', this one didn't have that ridiculous signet bit, and was instead a single piece of green glass, or maybe gem, that's stronger than steel.

Definitely less obvious and easier to hide.

Hymlen insisted we burn the bodies, so we spent more of the rest of the day doing that, in the ruined tower, then we made use of the Wizard's tent to sleep the night away and head out in the morning.

So, this ring? It had a completely different way of building Arcane Matrices, more… permanent. Heavy? Hmm, that was one way to describe it, I guess. But permanent seemed more descriptive. More refined, and would take me some time to unravel. Not like more recent enchanted items. I guess the Netheril knew what they were doing.

Or, maybe it had to do with complexity?

Well, we found our way into the area of Wyvern Tor from the north, and Silla who was our trailblazer and, I guess general ranger, waved us to a halt before disappearing into the brush.

I watched in the distance as she ambushed a Bugbear sentry and almost killed it, but it was still moving with an arrow in its skull! Her follow-up caught a gust of wind and was blown wide. So, I reached out and touched the tough Bugbear with my beam of light!

The Bugbear dropped, and she hurried back, looking contrite.

But we had a cave full of enemies to hate on… now, surprise or?

"Hey, think it's a good idea to pull them all together? Then I can tag them with a Fireball." I quietly called over to Silla.

"Yeah, that could work. Or at least soften them up." She agreed.

Moving over to where Hym and Kith were getting ready, I whispered, "Kith, be obvious. You're all alone and looking for 'adventure'. Get them all to the cave mouth."

He frowned at me before nodding. "Right, sure… why?"

"Fireball." I replied with a smirk, one he was quick to return.

Walking, noisily, to the cave mouth, Kith called out, "I wonder what's in this cave!"

"Kill the Human!" Echoed out of the cave, along with a loud bellow.

"Haha!" Markith fake laughed, "Bugbear scum! I will slay you!"

Man was he being hammy, but he wasn't pulling blows as he cleaved into the first Bugbear.

"Move! Let Gog!" Bellowed- Ho Shit! Bellowed an Ogre! And that was a Javalin flying past Kith! But thankfully, Silla waited, though I could see her not far from me, biting her lip.

Then tragedy struck, or at least put us on notice, and a Bugbear slammed its crude mace into Kith's head and nearly toppled him. How was he still standing?! He wasn't wearing a helmet! And two more javelins!

But they were all gathered up, and I had the scroll out and was reading off of it. Which, I might add, was a fascinating experience. As I finished, the scroll burnt up in a flash, and I found myself holding a small bead of fire. I didn't hold on long, I quickly sent it flying, which was less of an actual throw, and more of a willing it to a specific spot from your hand, and it had to travel in a straight line. The explosion flashed over the cave and took out most of the enemy in one go, sadly, not the Ogre. Then Silla let loose the arrow she had been holding to stab into the Ogre's massive bulk.

Hymlen moved in, throwing his ball of light, and missing horrifically, but he spoke a word for his other main spell and some of Kith's wounds pulled together. And of course, the man himself just charged in, and with two swift strokes killed both the Ogre and the last Bugbear.

With that done, we set about searching the cave, and I found myself coming to a stop, studying a crude carving on one wall. "Huh, what do you make of this?"

It was of a Goblin with an elongated skull and a crystal jutting from its skull.

"More of those strange Gobos?" Kith asked, shaking his head. "What a pain… think we'll end up running into any of them?"

"Probably," Hymlen called over.

"Cyric's dick." Silla grumbled, "They have shyt for loot." And with the happy information, we set up camp for the night, away from the cave, by a few miles.

We were sitting down for dinner, when Markith asked, "Ok, I keep forgetting, so here we are. How the nine hells do you know anything about my family's lore?"

Ah, um… er… fuck. "I might have heard a bit on my way here."

"I knew it!" Silla exclaimed, then paused and drooped a bit, "No, wait… You're not from Toril, are you?"

With a sigh, I shook my head. "No-"

"Ha! I was right!" She proclaimed before I could go on.

"Silla, let her finish," Hymlen admonished her.

With a sigh and a shake of my head, I continued, "The world I originally come from is… gone. Eaten by Elder Evils. I don't know how I survived, I just… kind of fell into a formless void where uncountable more slept. Then, the next world I ended up in was called Gaia. That's where I ended up learning magic from Κίρκη, a goddess of magic who reigned over Transmutation, Illusion, and Necromancy. Of which I was taught next to nothing. She mostly trained me in Herbcraft and healing magic, along with the core basics." And that was all I was willing to give.

"Great Mother." Silla whispered at about the same time Hymlen muttered, "Our smiling lady."

"Meh." Markith proclaimed, "I'm just glad to hear my family lore is true!"

The next couple of days were a bit subdued as we made our way back to Phandalin, and they processed my story, for all that it mattered. But they seemed keen to read more into it than there was.

We spent a night in Phandalin, along with picking up the rewards for the jobs we finished; Magic boots for Markith, gold for everyone, and some more potions of healing, split up among the others. Which was fine! I had a jazzy ring!

What the hell did 'Jazzy' even mean?

Our journey to Neverwinter took five days and had us carrying mail. I mean, fair, we were headed to the big city.

Now, I realize, I failed to describe Neverwinter, and I am tempted to keep with that, but the city was big, with high walls and many guards. The architecture differed from district to district, and some places were older than others.

Yeah, I'm not describing the city as a whole. Use your imagination or something. The Market district though was very classically European, with winding allies and… What's Europea- oh, huh… hmmm. Moving on.

Both Silla and Hymlen found something to burn cash on. Silla got a 'Cloak of Elven Kind', while Hymlen got an 'Amulet Of The Devout'. Markith and I didn't have the cash for it. Me because I bought that expensive wood, and him because he dumped some money into that crumbling manor.

Still, I had enough money to burn on things I needed to buy. First, a barrel sealed for preserving Dragon Blood. Next, a bunch of jars. Then a one-pound sample bar of Adamantine. And finally, fifty gold worth of seeds for various herbs, magical.

I had also begun experimenting on my dagger, with enchanting.

But we weren't in the city for more than two days, then we were off to Thundertree.

 

[Kerashana]

Our destination was a day away, but that's if we wanted to arrive at night. So, most of the way there we set camp early. The day after that, we arrived to find… well, a ruined town. More so than Conyberry was. And of course, some chuckle fuck thought it was a good idea to put out a sigh!

Oh, this one didn't proclaim the town or anything, instead, it read "Danger! Plant monsters and zombies! Turn back now!"

And this was supposed to… what? Discourage? Looked more like an invitation to me.

"Does that ever actually work?" Markith asked with a chuckle.

"On people whose name isn't Harlock? Sometimes. On Harlocks? I don't think it has ever worked." I replied with a shrug. "Now shall we depopulate a town of monsters?"

"Let's!" Silla agreed with a toothy smirk.

So, we followed the overgrown road into the town and looked around.

"Where do we even begin?" Hymlen asked, frustration clear on his face. "We need to find that Druid?"

Shrugging, I pointed at the closest building. "Well, let's just clear the town, we're bound to come across the Druid eventually, right?"

"Works for me." Markith agreed as he drew his sword and walked over to the nearest door. And nothing happened.

"All I see are plants." He called back, and… fair, I guess.

"The sign said plant monsters," Hymlen called back to remind him.

"Huh, so it did." He muttered before stabbing a nearby plant with his sword. "But nothing's moving."

Stepping forward, as though she was going to say something, Silla lunged forward, her saber sliding free of her sheath. I was unable to see what happened, but there was the thump sound of metal hitting wood, then again as wood hit the ground.

Moving up to the other building, I looked around, but didn't see anything, even as Hymlen called out, "You good there?"

"Yeah, we got this," Kith called back.

So, the Cleric moved up to the other house and looked in, and called out, "Shyt." Followed by the sound of metal hitting stone.

There was another thump, thump sound and Silla came running out of the building and into the other building with Hymlen.

Then suddenly, I was too busy dealing with the two of these things just appearing next to me! Backing away, I wasn't quite fast enough to dodge a reaching hand and took a slash right under my right breast!

"Fuck!" I hissed because that fucking hurt!

And without thinking, I reached out and grabbed the arm, of the hand that had slashed me, and growled out, "Qo." To my great surprise and confusion, lightning arced over my hand and into the plant man. Who immediately collapsed, dead.

That was… that was the taser hand Magecraft/Spell I had created. Except… that was instinctive! That was… what language was that?

No, now wasn't the time!

Thankfully, Kith came running up and cleaving the other thing in twain, "Come on, now isn't the time to get distracted."

Right, yeah, he was right.

Turning, I jumped and pulled myself up onto the crumbling wall, and from my new vantage point, I blasted away one of the seeming two remaining of these…. Things. While Hymlen crushed the other.

"Shit, what were those?" Kith asked, saving me from having to.

"Twig Blights." Silla replied, "Not very dangerous unless they surround you."

"Huh, annoying," Hymlen muttered as I climbed down, but he was preoccupied with looking around the roots on the floor. "Ha! Hey, I found a strong box."

"Great," Kith said with a grin, "So, the tavern next?"

We just shrugged in reply, so he walked over to the dilapidated building and casually threw open the door. Looking into the building, he shrugged, "Just some rotting bodies."

With a sigh, Hymlen moved forward, saying, "I guess we should give them burial rites then."

"Didn't the sign-" I didn't get to say more as Hymlen let out a curse and the sounds of shuffling groans could be heard inside the building.

"Vigilant Eyes," Silla… um, cursed? "Zombies."

So, probably a curse of some kind.

Moving forward, I got a good look through the door into the building and let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't like there were twelve of them or something. Then I took a pot-shot at one, punching a hole into it's torso. Not that it was inconvenienced much.

At the same time, Markith had ducked down, and charged in, striking out with his blade and taking off a leg. Then there was a flash of light from Hymlen, that didn't seem to do anything from where I was standing, and Silla put an arrow through an arrow slit in the shuttered over the window she was standing next to.

And then I saw why, Zombie fingers trying to get through the securely shut… well, shutters.

With a shake of my head, I moved up to the doorway and fired off another Δόρυ Φωτός, and punched a hole in the wall. Fuck.

At least Markith finished off the downed Zombie, but Hymlen didn't seem to be able to hit anything.

Silla ducked past me as the zombies continued to flail around. Wait, were these zombies drunk?

Something had to have happened, maybe that thought distracted me or something because my Spell failed, causing feedback like pins and needles to shoot through my hand for a moment. Was I just a bad Magus? Or were these the pains of creating a new system of magic?

Thankfully, no one seemed to notice as we went about the business of killing the last two zombies. Then after a look around by our… archer, because I wasn't sure if she was supposed to be a rogue or a ranger. Or just a righter that used a bow? We headed along the path around the base of a hill with a great deal of brush on it and a crumbling tower at the top.

"So, right or left?" Markith asked, looking in both directions.

"Well, there are buildings in both directions…" Silla replied, "How about a stick fall?"

With a sigh, I pointed right. "This way is an obvious dead end, so we can clear it, then head east."

"Sounds good to me." Silla agreed as the other two just frowned before shrugging.

Making our way down the right-hand path, we found a building in markedly better repair than the rest of the town, and a wrecked… farmhouse perhaps?

With a sigh, I walked up to the door and knocked. What door? The one for the well-kept building of course.

There was a moment of nothing then the faint, to me, sounds of movement inside. Then the door opened. The face that looked back at me was… old. A human woman with white hair and many wrinkles, she studied me, then the others for a moment before sighing, and quietly saying, "Come in, before you agitate one of the dangers of Thundertree."

And so we entered her little hut. It was… quaint, but I guess Druids didn't really do with frivolities.

Once we were all settled, and she even poured us some tea, some blend I couldn't name, she asked, "So, what brings four 'Adventurers' to my door?"

There was a moment of silence, but it seemed the others were going to let me do the talking thing.

"Well," I opened with, and I know, such a deep subject. "Intruductions I think. I'm Vaela, and these are Markith, Hymlen, and Silla. You are Reidoth, correct?"

"Indeed." She agreed with a faint huff.

"Then we need your help to find Cragmaw Castle," I explained, "The Cragmaw have been attacking caravans to and from Phandalin, and even kidnapped a friend of ours."

Frowning she shook her head, "That doesn't bode well. Someone must have riled them up. But it's still too… hmm. Perhaps a deal?"

"I mean," I replied, "Sure, but we're already planning to clear Thundertree."

That earned me an owlish look from her before she shook her head. "Do you even know what's here? The house at the base of the hill is home to two giant spiders. There are many twig blights and zombies. There have even been people in black masks and cloaks lurking around recently. And on top of that, there's Venomfang, a young Green Dragon. You're better off leaving Thundertree and forgetting all of this Cragmawe mess."

"Nah," Markith exclaimed, leaning forward, "This sounds like a great old time!"

The Druid sighed, "Fine, if I can't stop you… If you succeed, then I will tell you were the castle is."

"Deal." I replied with a grin, and suddenly felt magic quiver and snap into place between us… "Um, was that your doing?"

"No." She replied with more of a frown, "How strong is your Fey ancestry?"

That… was a good question. So, I just shrugged, "I have no idea."

"Then, perhaps, you should be more careful about making deals." She advised, and I think it was rather good advice. "Still, you and your party are welcome to rest here if you need it."

"Thank you." Markith spoke up again, smiling, "We could use a breather."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outside Reidoth's hut, Markith motioned at the building across the way questioningly.

"Go ahead." I replied with a sigh, but it wasn't like I 'remembered' much about Thundertree. Just the Dragon and the Cultists. Kind of.

Markith led us into the building, and… well, nothing.

Then suddenly, there were Twig Blights behind me, and I lashed out without thinking, that strange word falling from my mouth in a growling speech I didn't know I knew. "Qo."

But as my sparking had made contact, the closest Twig Blight practically exploded. And Markith stepped onto it's smoldering corpse, Talon lashing out to make firewood of the other Blight. Not that Silla and Hymlen were silent, though by Hymlens muttered curses, he missed, again.

Then another Twig Blight, appeared and slashed into Markith. But failed to do any real damage.

Leaving that Blight to Markith, I turned and fired a spear at one of the three Blights I could see to the south of the building, blasting it into kindling.

The sound of cut timber was refreshing, coming from where Markith was, Even as something with a more defined human shape appeared. And I watched Hymlen swing wide… what was going on? I knew he knew how to hit things! But at least Silla was murdering the Blights well enough.

Still, there was a new, unknown threat, so I blasted it with one of my spears. To say the sudden surge of arcane power that occurred was unwelcome would be a lie. But fuck was this getting annoying. My best-understood cantrip was swinging wildly between nearly useless to hyper-effective! There was no excuse for this!

I needed to study the ambient Mana, I think.

Shaking my head, I turned away as Silla murdered another Blight, and moved to help Markith, another spear lashing out to blast apart another Blight. Even as Markith cleaved another to flinder and stepped forward into it's place.

And the battle, slaughter? Was more or less over.

"That was a bit intense." Markith grunted out, "Fun, but intense."

"A bit," Silla agreed, leaning against a wall, "But I don't think there's anything to find here."

"Damn." He grumbled, "Still, less of those… Blight things. So a win over all."

I was only listening with half my attention as I tried to figure out the best way to make a tool to measure ambient Mana, and the flows in the air. Atmosphere?

"Well, let's keep going." Hymlen grunted, "Though I think I'm going to have to start using my spells a little more freely."

"Right," Silla muttered as she quaffed a potion. Then with a nod, pointed at the next house. "You want to just bumble in, again, Kith? Or shall I do my job?"

"Ah, er… right, I'll wait." He replied chagrined.

As Silla slipped into the building, I took in its exterior and… well, it was markedly less crumbling than the other buildings around her, with the obvious exception of Reidoth's hut.

It wasn't long until she returned, pointing at different sides of the building. "Giant Spiders, there and there. But I figure we can kill them if we focus them down quick."

Eh… no, I'll save my magic for now. The Dragon is going to take some real power. "Yeah, but remember, there's also a Dragon around. Maybe, maybe we can clear the town before calling it a night and come back in the morning. But I'm iffy about that right now."

"Right. Yeah, you're right." She agreed with a frown.

"Spiders now, Dragon later," Hymlen spoke up, "The worst that could happen is the Dragon comes to us."

True… I guess. Huh, true. "Ok, Spiders. Silla, start us off will you."

Silla fired an arrow into the building before standing there for a moment, then she crept into the building and fired another through a doorway, this elicited a skree sound and more angry spider sounds. Then she was covered in webs. Wonderful.

Quickly moving into the building, I noticed one of the spiders was just dead, and the other was skittering towards her. So, I did what smart people do. I shot it.

My Δόρυ Φωτός punched through it and the spider just… folded up. As dead spiders do.

With a shake of my head, I looked around, even as my companions began to search the place for anything of use. This place was… mostly held together by spiderwebs. Neat! Walking over, I used Δομική ανάλυση to study the composition of the silk webs, and… it was interesting but also boring. They definitely weren't revolutionary, but I saw a few properties that could potentially be useful for other types of silk? No, no, it was all tied too tightly into its flammability, which was best labeled as flash burn.

"Yes!" Silla proclaimed, drawing me away from the webs and over to where she was stripping a dead, husk of an elf. "Found myself some magical Brigandine!"

I frowned for a moment, I could… but no. I didn't really need armor. If I was in melee something was going wrong. It wasn't like I had to deal with bullets here.

"Better than those leathers you've been using." Markith snorted, "They're starting to get worn."

"Yeah, yeah. Out, all of you!" She proclaimed and with a shrug, I led the others out.

"Building?" I asked, pointing at the small smithy.

"Sure." Hymlen agreed, and we walked over and opened the back door… to find two Zombies. They… were not a challenge.

Looking through the building, I found myself swiping a pair of tongs, but my hands were itching. Something was here… something I needed to-

Unburying an old cabinet, I opened it to find a leather satchel filled with diamond-shaped plates of a brown-gold color… these were.

"What'd you find?" Markith asked as he walked over.

Looking down, I wondered why I was clutching it so possessively… "Um, Dovah Qah-" Wait, what did I just say? "Dragon Scales," I repeated and… what was going on?

"Huh, ok." He replied with a shrug. "What could we do with them?"

Looking down at them, I found myself suppressing a sneer? Then the feeling passed and I replied, "Make Scale Mail I guess? It would be stronger and make you resistant to… fire in this case."

What? "How do I know this?"

"No idea!" Markith replied chipperly, "But that sounds like armor that would be great for Hymlen. What do you think?"

I stood there, holding the bag, confused for a moment before reaching in and pulling a few out. Then I held the back out to him. "Here, take it. Now."

"Right!" He agreed, taking it. Then he hurried over to Hymlen and gave it to him.

"So, what's I miss?" Silla asked as she walked in, wearing the browns and blacks of her new armor.

"Just Vae here speaking Draconic." Markith declared, "Of I'm pretty sure it's Draconic."

"Oh? Well, Μπάνισε βρωμιάRul dreh hi siiv mindoraan?" She asked and… I knew what she said.

"No idea." I replied.

"Huh- wait." She marched up to me and stared directly into my eyes for a moment. "Are your eyes bluer?"

Um? "I don't know?"

"Well, then, let's continue on!" She cheered.

Nodding, we stepped out the front of the smithy, and looked around-

"Hey, there's the Herbalists shop." Silla happily pointed out. And sure enough… So, we headed over that way and found the necklace Mirna told us about.

"Ok, I spoke of, clearing my throat, "Vote. Do you sell it and get some more gold? Or do we return a valuable heirloom to it's owner, and get no reward?"

Everyone looked at everyone else before Markith replied with a sigh, "I vote we return it."

"Agreed," Hymlen spoke up.

"Darn." Silla grumbled, "This is worth a lot too." Then with a sigh she continued, "But you're right. We should return it to them."

"Good to see you all have morals." I replied, "After the incident with the Wizard I was starting to wonder."

"Hey, look." Silla defended herself, "That guy was a Necromancer. They do horrible things."

Note to self. Never tell her of all the people I helped, or did myself sometimes, turned into animals. Especially need to remember not to tell her about eating some of those animals.

Leaving the shop, I looked south, then north, and hummed. "Fine, whatever. Let's check those two buildings to the south. Then we can head north. Also, we're killing the Cultists. 100 Gold they're Dragon Cult."

"No bet." Hymlen shot back.

"Eh?" Markith vocalized, "Dragon Cult?"

"Cult of the Dragon, followers of Tiamat," Hymlen spoke in rote.

"Well, then," He replied, "I guess it's to the harvest we go, again."

The first structure, couldn't be called a building anymore. It was just a few walls barely holding together, but the courtyard beyond? That was an interesting story. It was covered in debris. Obviously, someone had cleared out the house before us.

At a glance, the place looked pretty well sealed up…

"Follow my lead," I whispered back, then purposefully marked towards the front door and growled out, "Bex. Zu'u los het wah tinvaak voth hin kinbok."

Now that I was doing it on purpose, I could sense the change, and hear it, but there was also another feeling. Deep in my throat, like my vocal cords were shifting, changing, to accommodate the new words I was speaking.

"G-gein tiidm, zin briinah!" Someone stuttered out in a pale mockery of this true tongue.

There was some shuffling around, then the door opened, "Ah, daar miiraad zin briinah, Favric los ahst fin praan hofkah."

"Good," I replied in common, "But your diction offends me."

"My apologies honored sister," The cultist replied, "But not all of us can be blessed with Dragon Blood."

I just snorted, and as soon as I stepped into the new room, I stepped aside, out of Markith's way, and let loose a Δόρυ Φωτός at the man who looked to be the leader. To my frustration, he was fast enough to dodge the beam, and bellowed out, "It's a trick!"

Sneering, I replied, just as loudly, "No Favric, the cult simply had no more use for you."

Blatant lie? Yeah, but might as well keep up with the charade.

He rushed at me with a snarl and struck out with his sword, a scimitar… mostly, and missed horribly.

Markith? Not so much, he stepped forward and with a flick of his sword he left Favric clutching at a bloody stump.


He wasn't so lucky with the cultist next to him, and I was just as unlucky as another lunged for me. But even with the glancing hits we took? This wasn't so bad.

Surrounded as we were… well, it was a target-rich environment, for a moment, then with a flick of my cane, the blade of my ξίφος had bisected one cultist. Sadly, this didn't help Markith as a cultist showed that they knew how to parry!

So novel, much shock!

Hymlen pushed through, and made an attempt to crush Favric under foot, but sadly failed.

Stabbing downwards, I stuffed my energy blade through Favric's eye and that, as they say, was that.

And suddenly, with a burst of movement from Markith, there was only one cultist left.

"I surrender! I surrender!" He pleaded, throwing down his weapon… Sure.

"We accept," I replied, "Now take a nap. Kith, if you would?"

And the cultist hit the floor, while Markith shook his hand. "Wow, what are their jaws made of?"

Shaking my head, I started looking around, and beat Silla to the good stuff! I found a bag filled with six lustrous amethysts, not as good as sapphires, but respectable!

"Hey, I found a potion of some kind," Silla called, holding up the bottle.

Taking it from her, I spent some time using Δομική ανάλυση on it and… oh, well fuck you miss loot goblin! Fuck you! "It's a Potion of Fly. You should hold onto it, it might be useful against the dragon."

"And those pretty stones?" She asked, smiling.

I wanted to hoard them, but that was silly, I had research to do!

"I think I can use them as anchors for enchantments, maybe. But I need to experiment to find out. Unfortunately, I'm not a smith, so I need a wooden weapon to work with, maybe a club? Yes, that would work."

"Cool!" She replied smiling, "And the cultists?"

"I'm sure our Druid friend would like to ask some questions," Hymlen replied for me, and I smiled, pointing at him.

"That…" She paused and frowned, then nodded. "That sounds legit. Yeah, let's go talk to Reidoth."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, you brought me the survivor?" Reidoth asked sceptically.

"Well," Markith hedged, "More like prisoner; he did surrender."

She frowned, then looked at the unconscious body. "And what do you expect me to do with him?"

"Um, find out why the cult was here? If there are any big plans in motion?" He replied with a shrug, "You can take him out behind the shed and use him to feed your plants for all I care. I just don't want to know."

"Alright," She conceded, "Was that all?"

"Sadly," He bemoaned, "We have more town to sweep. I just didn't want to drag this… prisoner around with us."

"I see."

And we left her with a cultist. Not sure how that will turn out, but I hope he isn't in the evening soup. She probably couldn't turn him into a boar.

As for the rest of the town, I'll skip to the Dragon, Venomfang, with a note that all that was left were a few zombies and blights. It didn't take long to kill them.

The top of the hill, the tower, was… interesting. There were two giant spider corpses out front of it, and half the tower's roof was visibly missing. The acrid scent in the air was telling of the kind of Dragon lived here, a Green, but we knew that.

No, most telling was the ache in my bones, I don't know how to describe it, but a part of me wanted to fight. To prove my rel over the foolish youth before me. Still, it wasn't hard to reign the feeling in with sense and logic.

"Silla, you fly us up to the roof? While Kith and Hym gon in from the ground?" I asked, "We then hit it with everything we have?"

"That… yeah, that could work." She agreed as she pulled out the potion.

"Alright," Markith agreed, "We can totally do this."

"Yes, we can." I agreed as Silla took the potion, floating up, and then we headed for the roof.

And suddenly, things popped off with startling speed. Silla let loose an arrow, finding a niche between scales, and Hymlen called up a glowing sword and tossed his glowing ball. The ball missed, but not the sword.

Then the Dragon roared, pain evident in it's voice. And everything went wrong, all at once. The Dragon breathed out its poisonous breath, and Kith and Hym fell to the ground.

Instead of cursing, I did one of those things you can't describe, and you can't quite understand unless you can do it. I spoke to words at once. "διορθώνω/αστέρια."

The first was healing directed at Hymlen, and the other was to send a bolt of arcane energy flying at the Dragon. It even worked, as the Dragon suddenly looked up at me.

So Silla put an arrow in the underside of his neck.

And Hymlen healed Markith, even as his glowing sword slashed into the dragon, and he threw another glowing ball, this one hitting.

Then Venom Fang burst forward and bit into Hymlen, and as he was falling to the ground he growled out something in a guttural tongue, and a burst of fire blasted the Dragon in the face.

"Keep fighting!" Markith roared as he tried to find a weakness in the Venomfang's scales. And low and behold, Hymlen caught himself and looked up into the frustrated Dragon's eyes as I double-spoke again.

"Γοητεύω/αστέρια."

This time, when my bolt of arcane energy slammed into Venomfang, it was accompanied by a burst of entropic force. And suddenly, our boi the Dragon was not looking so good, in fact, I would say he was looking scared, and trying to find a way out.

Then as he looked at us with calculating eyes, preparing to try and push past perhaps? Well, it doesn't matter, as Silla put an arrow through an eye.

The Dragon was dead.

Hopping down, onto the stairs that ran around the tower, I bolted down them as fast as my Ενίσχυση body could go. Even as I fumbled out the barrel! It wasn't long before I was letting blood pool in the barrel, and able to go over and help my companions… and maybe even friends at this point, with their wounds. It wasn't great, but I was able to seal up the worst of it, and mend some of the damage to their lungs.

"Great Mother Chauntea! That was…" Markith grunted, "Too close. We… that was too close." Then he got a madcap grin on his face. "But we killed a dragon! We killed it! Ha!"

"And he was only a juvenile," I remarked, sealing the barrel. How was I going to get this into my bag? Shaking my head, I moved on to the remaining eye, placing that in a jar with preservative liquids. Then parts of the brain stem, brain, and using Αλλαγή, I pulled out as much stem cells as I could. Then I went digging for the Heart and whatever the organ that produced the poison was called.

Then I started pulling scales, an easy endeavor with Αλλαγή to have them pull off easily. Three thousand scales, with a fourth being damaged beyond recovery. Then I had Silla help me skin the Dragon's hide, at the same time recovering claws, and teeth. Then on to cuts of meat, and finally Dragon bone.

"Shyt, there's not much left of this… guy?" I nodded at Silla's question, "Not much left of this guy to do anything with, just a pile of awful and extra organs.

Yup! I took all I could, and now my bag was rather full… Could I make a bigger bag?

"Well, let's return to Reidoth and have some dragon steak!" I said cheerily, "Not to mention the location of Cragmaw Castle. We might want to stop by Neverwinter on the way back though, I'm out of room in my bag!"

"Yeah." Silla replied with a sigh, "And we have all this loot too!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Ho boy howdy! You all saw this shit right? This almost ended horrifically. And yes, I fudged the- actually, I haven't given over that! I fudged the mechanics of one of MArkith's abilities a bit. But that's because I'm treating every round as mostly simultaneous.

Now, to go over things.
-Markith is a Fighter, with the Banneret (Purple Dragon Knight). No, he has not taken an oath, or been knighted. He is officially just some bumpkin who fights and acts like a knight. Kind of, this is a Harlock after all.
-Hymlen is a Cleric, no shit bro. With the Trickery Domain... but I'm bad at using it. Meh.
-Silla is a rogue/ranger hybrid. Probably going to end up Rogue 4 [Scout] // Ranger 8 [Gloomstalker]
-Finally, Vaela is running, right now, a modified Warlock [Celestial] // Sorcerer [Dragon Blood]. I'm debating the exact split, but maybe 4/8- probably 4/8. 2/10 or 3/9 also have their own appeals. [I would, personally, not allow the modifications used in this story in real play. For this character specifically. As she can, kind of, arbitrarily get spell slots back. and eventually won't be rolling damage, just maximizing it.]

And this is all assuming that the characters only go up to level 12, and not higher as I'm not running milestones, but actually calculating XP.

Hope that answers some questions.

 

[Kerashana]

A/N: Sorry, this one's a bit short. But I want to start the next section with a clean start. Whole start? Hmm... Well, I bet you aren't complaining about more out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Returning to Reidoth, manhandling a dragon skull was… awkward and a view of what we had to look forward to. The look on her face was worth it though! She was more than a little shocked, eyes bulging, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"So, the towns clear now!" I told her, "And we have Dragon Steak for dinner!"

"Ah, then… I should get the stove heated up." She replied hollowly, "How- no, just… fine. I suppose I have to tell you where the Castle is, but I warn you. Attacking them isn't a good idea."

"Great!" I replied with a smile, "Now, who knows how to cook?"

We ended up going through a bit of the meat I had, turning a large chunk of it into jerky, while Reidoth kept another portion as well, and I was able to sit down and experiment!

A little bit.

Taking a branch, I fashioned it into a club, then embedded one of the amethysts, before starting to build the arcane matrices. It was tougher than I thought it would be, but also easier. There was a momentum to it. Yet, I was able to etch it out and imbue a concept of solidness to it.

Not an impressive Mystic Code, but a good proof of concept.

It was empowered like Kith's sword and drew ambient mana into a reservoir in itself, so even in an anti-magic zone it should keep working through concept alone!

As proof of concepts went, it was very bland, but it worked, and most importantly, showed me I could enchant things! Just… this way was less than optimal. More like strapping a… motorcycle engine onto a shopping cart. You can do it, and it will work, but why? And more importantly, you just shouldn't.

I had better ideas to work out, and so on… but I also had friends who needed better gear now. So, I would need to get them to a blacksmith.

The journey back to Neverwinter took two days, because of the skull, and we made quite the spectacle entering the city. Enough of one to have a Noble catching us outside the market district gates.

"Ah, you are the mighty Adventurers that slew a dragon! Marvelous! I have an offer for you if you are interested." Turning, I found myself looking at… a round man who seemed a little too… brightly colored, or his clothes did anyway.

"Well, we'll hear you out," I replied, bringing us to a halt.

"Wonderful! I offer you seven hundred gold or a pair of Goggles of Night for the magnificent skull you're carrying." He replied with a grin… huh.

"Seven hundred gold, and the goggles and you can have the skull and a magic axe." I shot back, and he froze for a moment, frowning.

Then figuring a medallion, he nodded and proclaimed, "Let me see that axe then."

Markith pulled out the axe, 'Hew' apparently, and held it up.

"Hmm, certainly in magical… but the rust? How does a magic item rust?" The fat noble grumbled.

"The rust is cosmetic," I replied, "The Axe is called Hew and is actually unique. It's very effective against plants."

"Ah, really now? Well… hmm… six hundred gold and we have a deal." He counter offered and… yeah that was good enough, and a rip-off for a unique magic item, yes. But we were pressed for time, just a bit. Just getting Armor made for Hymlen would be a pain… unless…

"Or… perhaps you know where we can get some magic armor?" I asked, frowning. "Our Cleric could use some extra protection."

"Ah, sadly no. But if you're looking for Bags of Holding! I can help you!" He replied much to my dissatisfaction… wait, Bags of Holding?

"How many?" I shot back, and he grinned. "I only have twelve in stock, but if you need more I assure you I can procure them!"

Twelve! Gah!

Still, "Alright, a hundred gold, the goggles and a bag."

"Deal!" He immediately replied, "Now if you will follow me! My shop isn't too far from here!"

And so, as we followed him, he chattered on and on about his shop. His hobby really, because collecting enough magic items to sell was hard. Eventually, we were free, Markith declaring the goggles should go to Silla.

Then we went off to find the best smith in the city, which took a day in its own right.

Walking into the foundry with my friends, I spoke up, "Regmur! Got an offer for you."

The foundry was busy, with a number of people doing this, or that, but one dwarf looked up before yelling something at another Dwarf in- well, at a guess, Dwarvish.

That Dwarf came up to me and proclaimed, "Regmur is busy. So you'll have to take your offer up with me, name's Dolmur."

Frustrating, it made me want to tear them to piec… es? Ok, I need to watch that. "We have a project we need done well, and fast." I motioned at Hymlen who showed the scales. "We need to outfit our Cleric with better armor, Dragon Scale should do. So, I'm offering an equal amount of green dragon scales to have armor made out of brass ones. On top of a premium of a hundred gold to get it done as fast as you can."

Then I paused for a moment, weighing things, before explaining, "We are on a time crunch. A friend, Gundren Rockseeker was kidnapped, and we mean to get him back. But that means we need to be able to survive."

"Greeds Curse." The Dolmur cursed under his breath. "That the only thing you need done?"

"No, I need these Amathysts embedded into a few pieces of gear," I replied showing them off.

"Which I'll be paying for." Markith cut in.

"What gear?" Dolmur asked, frowning openly.

"A Saber, Splint, and two Shields." Markith continued, looking at me.

"Yeah, what he said," I replied.

"Fine, wait here." He grumbled before trundling off.

A few minutes later he returned with the Dwarf who was probably Regmur.

"Dolmur's told me everything. And we're going to make a number of people unhappy, but you have a deal. If you'll follow me. We need to get measurements for the Cleric and you have something to give me?" He spoke, and I sighed internally.

"Of course, let's settle accounts." I agreed. "We need to be back on the road by the end of this tenday."

Grumbling, he asked, "There a reason Gundren would be kept alive?"

"Yes," I replied with a sigh. "They want the lost mines of Phandelver. He had a map, but the… probably Drow, running the show would have need of a dwarf, at some point."

"Slag Steel." He cursed, "Yeah, that sounds about right. Fine, we'll get things done as fast as we can, but we can't compromise on quality."

"Please don't," Hymlen replied before being led off by what was probably an apprentice.

From there it was just payment and waiting.

Over the course of the four days, we had to wait, the gemmed gear came back, I enchanted it, while also turning Silla's bow into something a bit better, and I even found time to study the Dragon's heart. It was a fascinating specimen, but also very depressing. It was powerfully magical, but it was not a Dragon heart as I knew of them. It was not a Mana factory.

Now that I thought about it though, that made sense. Dragons here were fearsome, yes, but they weren't like the Dragons on Gaia. Even after pouring Prana into it, there was no marked change. Just an organ that granted innate magical power. Impressive, but therein lay the difference.

Dragons here had evolved in parallel with the Weave. They had no reason to be arcane reactors. Instead, they were powerful channels for the magic of the weave. Even then, there were things that could be done with the heart. For example, one could be fused into a magical focus to make it more powerful.

My findings were backed with a kind of disappointed disdain that bubbled up from within me. Daar lost fron, nuz kreh. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. Like seeing an amputee, you pitied them, it was just an unconscious reaction.

Now, the other thing, one I know you've been wondering about. What about Runes? Well, I have been collecting them, or something like them. The difference was subtle, but the mechanic was the same. Yet, I hesitated to use them. Here I was, doing mostly fine, and…

On the last day, I caved and channeled Runes, or Souls, or whatever it was, into me. Letting it permeate my soul and build on it. I still focused on my Magic Circuits, but I also let some splash out and pool into other parts of me at random.

Leaving through the south gate, I smiled as my friends seemed giddy over their new gear. Hymlen was actually quite dashing in his Dragon Scale armor, and Markith seemed more sure of himself now with his armor and shield enchanted. That would be Splint armor. Silla though was practically hugging her new bow, her enchanted saber almost forgotten.

That bow turned out better than I had expected. I used Αλλαγή to combine Dragon bone with her bow, replacing the wood almost completely with the bone. Yet the better properties of the wood, it's springyness, remained. And I fused the last Amathysts into it, before pumping it with an enchantment.

To my great surprise, it devoured far more Prana than the other items, even the larger armor, before the enchantment settled in. Do you know what happened? Somehow, I had made it into a bane weapon, specifically, against dragons. I just… how does that even happen?!

Of course, I knew how it happened, after looking back on it. The bow that killed the Dragon, fused with pieces of that very dragon? Concept alignment. I had made a Conceptual weapon! A Noble Phantasm! Sure it was only rank E+, but that changed nothing!

I was almost as giddy as she was.

But moving on, it took us two days, with Silla leading the way, to get to the area of Cragmaw Castle, and on the third day, we came within sight of the castle, and Silla left us cooling our heels in the cover of a copse of trees while she scouted ahead.

And when we returned she silently led us around the north of the castle, then up to the wall or crumbled tower really. Why, you would wonder, but she led us on through a hidden opening and into the castle. Looking around, I could see many rotted barrels and crates, marking this as once being where provisions were kept, at a guess. There was a heavy curtain to the South and a door to the East.

If memory/knowledge served me… we needed to go east.

Silently moving that way, I waited at the door, listening for a moment, then opened it slowly. Sure enough, there was a hall leading to another door, and it was just as I remembered from the map.

Turning around, I sighed as I saw everyone gathered around the curtain. They- Gah! Fuck, can't mak- "Haalvut."

The word came hissing from my mouth and a spectral dragon's paw? Shimmered into existence, and floated over to tap Markith on the shoulder.

His head turned and he frowned at the hand, then looked around. When he saw me over at a different door, he herded the others over. "What is it?"

"This way," I replied, "Can't you feel it?"

"No… but you haven't been wrong yet." He whispered, "What's the plan?"

I didn't get to reply as a scream of pain cut off anything I wanted to say. Instead, I pointed and growled, "Krii."

He blinked at me for a moment before shrugging and charging in… and shit, I did it again. Really, I should just be glad I wasn't slipping into Greek too.

Then came the roar of an angry Bugbear echoing through the halls.

The sounds of movement just to our south had me rushing forward and teleporting into the room by the unconscious dwarf. Who was, thankfully, not dead.

What I found was… well, a bent-over drow, a Bugbear, and a Wolf. A big wolf. So, I threw a αστέρια at the Bugbear. Sadly, this Bugbear actually wasn't half ba-d… was that a crude crown on its head?

"N-no! Stay ba-ck!" The Drow yelled, swiping with her sword. And missing Markith badly. Then a Hobgoblin appeared in the doorway and struck at Markith, managing to score a hit.

"Wilting!" Fell from Markith's mouth, even as he tensed and suddenly burst into a two-strike combo, killing the Drow. Only for it to transform as it died… Doppelganger.

Wait, did it try to read my mind… and run into the Kaleidoscope? That seemed like a potent mental defense… I should see if I could firm that up!

Then, of course, there was also Silla ramming her saber into the skull of the wolf. My party was starting to be more than just lucky, good.

"I will kill you!" The Bugbear bellowed as he took another swing with his mace. But really, did Markith even need magic armor?

Now, αστέρια, round two, fight! And this time I hit! Blasting a bloody crater into the Bugbear's back.

And that was an arrow in Markith's shoulder! Ok, he needs better armor! Even Hymlen was… not fighting up to par, as his mace hit didn't K.O. the Bugbear. Fuck.

Markith sidestepped the Hobgoblin in the door's blow and eviscerated the Bugbear. Whatever his name was. Of course, then Silla moved to have a clear line of sight and killed a Hobgoblin in one shot.

Stepping in front of Gundren's unconscious body, I stared, wide-eyed at the number of enemies outside the door! I needed some kind of AOE! Stat! Sadly, I was not equipped for that. Instead, I called up my magic, opening Circuits as I did and pushing power out with my casting. "Υπνος."

This was followed by the sound of four bodies hitting the floor. And a Goblin bolting in past Markith, somehow, and attacking Hymlen, again, for whatever reason. But, it was a Goblin and not a very smart one, so it was obviously easy for him to parry the clumsy blow with his shield.

And that was an arrow bouncing off of Kith's armor! Ha! Come one! He's on the ground! How did you miss?!

What! Even Silla's missing! Fuck!

And another Goblin bolting in? No, just… No, two! Fuck!

Stabbing out, I put my ξίφος through the Goblin's head, and moved on, even as Hymlen took a strike from one of the Goblins that had gotten in. Not that he was daunted, reaching out and crushing its head with his mace. And here comes another Goblin.

Finally, an arrow flying down range elicited a cry of pain! Ha!

Fuck! That's a- fuck!

Holding my leg where a new goblin just sliced me open, I growled, and put my ξίφος, through his head too! "Silla, the Archer!"

And there's another Goblin skull crushed by Hymlen.

Silla danced forward, loosing an arrow, then back to her previous position, and I let loose my own spear, I don't know which killed the Hobgoblin, but it wasn't getting back up.

And just like that… things were over, and I had time to slowly knit my flesh back together. But fuck! Being cut to the bone hurts!

Meanwhile, Markith killed the last two Hobgoblins and a single Goblin. Even as Silla got to looting.

Once I was fine, I took care of Markith and Hymlen, then looked over Gundren. He… didn't look good, beaten and bruised… Reaching out, I channeled Prana into him and slowly started the process of healing.

"Huh! Ah!" He proclaimed as he suddenly woke. "W-were… oh… it wasn't just a dream."

"Well," Markith spoke up, "We aren't done here yet, but I'm sure we'll be fine. If you want to wait here."

"Y-yes. I think that would be best." He replied, with a sigh, "I'm still not feeling the best."

"Ha!" Silla cheered as she moved a false flagstone. "Loot! Oh, and I found the map."

Taking it, I looked it over before handing it to Gundren. "We'll be needing to get to Wave Echo."

"R-right." He grunted. "Can't let this… Spider keep the Wave Echo Cave!"

"First, we have to finish off the Cragmaw." Hymlen stated.

"Right." Gundren grunted, "Go, I'll be fine."

I would love to cut this short, and just tell you that it was all Gobos from here. But well-

Leaving Gundren, we headed south and came across a door that was boarded up… this was not a trapped Owlbear…

Interesting.

"Do we… just leave it?" I asked, looking at the others.

"I say we see what's inside." Silla countered. "Markith?"

"I'm always down to explore dark chambers!" He replied with wiggling eyebrows… and was he flirting with her? Was she blushing? Well… that was more about the party dynamic than I wanted to know.

Hymlen just sighed, and complained, "I guess we're going in."

So, Markith started pulling off the boards.

Past the door? It was a hollowed-out tower, the whole of it in shadows and darkness. Which, was a problem for Markith, but not the rest of us! Ha!

Still, Hymlen reached out and touched Kith's sword and it burst into light.

The light did nothing for the tower, simply highlighting the dust and rubble on the floor. Along with broken glass, an old work table, and empty bookshelves.

Then Hymlen walked past us into the room… except, I turned to make sure, and yes, he was still standing to the side of the door.

Markith blinked at him, then turned to blink at him again… Then jumped as something floated down from the rafters and tried to tentacle the Tiefling! No bad! This was not Japan!

Where the fuck was- oh, Gaia. Earth. Ok? I don't get it.

Then with a shrug, Markith walked in and slashed into the… beaked tentacle brain. And it let out a warbling cry of pain and flailed around. Not that it did the creature any good as Silla and I blasted it, and even Hymlen got in a lick of magic. And then Markith's second stroke cut the thing in half.

"Well, that was exciting." He stated looking around, "But I don't see anything that could be worthwhile."

Shaking her head, Silla started climbing the tower up to one of the cliff-like sections. Once up there, she looked around before making her way over to a different protrusion.

"Nothing worthwhile?" She called down, "So I get to have your portion?"

"Don't be daft." He shot back with a smile.

And I think, really, I'll just give you the short version of the rest. We killed some Goblins, and some more Hobgoblins, and even a Grix. But nothing really noteworthy.

From there, we took Gundren to Phandalin and took a day to recover.

 

[Kerashana]

A/N: Ha... fuck. So, Simple Intrest and such, sucks. (Math class) But I got through it. Even figured out where I was going wrong the next day.... making it so much easier. Go figure. But I also got caught up in reading [A Young Girl's Weaponization of the Mythos], and wow did I enjoy it. Check it out. But that's been my week mostly, and why I don't have as much to post this week.

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Over the course of that day, I found myself starting to ache, and I wasn't sure how to deal with the constant pain. This led to us being held up for another day as Hymlen looked more over, but neither he nor the local cleric of Tymora could figure out what was wrong.

The pain was just getting worse, but I talked everyone into heading out the next day. We had a job to do, and I had to just deal. Wouldn't be the first time I had to work through debilitating pain. Not with who my teacher was.

But I had forgone my leather armor. I wasn't in melee enough to justify it, and the pressure just caused me more pain. Like fire in my bones, and only breathing in seemed to cool the flames.

Wave Echo was only fifteen miles out of town and a dingy little cave. Disappointing really. I bet finding Mithral Hall was nowhere near as bleak.

Making our way into the caves… well, we reluctantly let Hymlen turn Markith's sword into a brand of light again. Then we found a large natural cavern with a wrecked camp in it.

Three bedrolls, a heap of the usual supplies… and a dead Dwarf. Sighing, I walked over and touched him, letting my Δομική ανάλυση tell me what it could.

Let's see… Tharden Rockseeker, dead for about a week… killed by a crushing blow. Oh, he's wearing a magical cloak, cool.

Touching the cloak, I did the same thing… protective energies… ah, name. "Cloak of Protection, who wants it?"

Markith and Hymlen went back and forth for a moment before Markith spoke up. "I'll take it I guess."

Taking it, he sighed and pulled it on. Then looked around before walking over to a large pit and looking in. "Oh, a rope!"

With a sigh, we all climbed down, and I had to grit my teeth the entire way. This was getting ridiculous.

As I let go of the rope and looked around, Markith asked, "So, North or South? I'm thinking North. The stories always say to stick to the right-hand wall and all that. So if we go opposite, we'll find all the dead ends and loot?"

Everyone gave me a look, and… what? What did they want? "What? I'm not the leader or anything."

"You kind of are." Hymlen replied, "I mean, you let Markith do most of the Leadery things, but you have a… force of personality…"

"Fine, fine. I don't really have a preference. North sounds good." I replied with a sigh. This was obviously the problem of Facing a party. People start to look at you to be the leader.

The North led us to a warren of tunnels and left us frowning. Shrugging, he picked a tunnel and started off.

Eventually, we made it to a chamber with a still, dark pool of water in it. Unfortunately, it was very fishy smelling. The odor, horrid.

Stopping near a set of stairs, Markith asked, "So, does anyone want to-"

And was interrupted as a snake, no sorry, a giant snake, lunged out of the water at me. Unfortunately for the Snek, I had these things, called legs, they help you do things, like duck.

"Shyt!" Silla yelped backing up, but she also let an arrow fly as she did her best to open space between her and the snake.

Backing up myself, I raised my cane and swirled it in a circle motion and spoke out, "αστέρια." Blasting a chunk out of the snake. Unfortunately, that was the same time Hymlen stepped forward and swung his mace… and the snake might have jerked out of the way because of my spell… oops?

Markith on the other hand managed to score a shallow slash, even with that happening.

On the other hand, it also threw off the snake's attempt to bite Markith so… yay? Of course, Silla and I did it again, we both hit the damn snake and who knows which of us killed it.

"Well, that was a surprise." Hymlen laughed, "But it could have been worse."

So, of course, it got worse… maybe? An amorphous blob of orange goop slothed into the view…

"Blighted Harvest!" Markith shouted, "I'm out!" And he backed away… why?

Oh! Oh… Oozes… often split into two with slashing damage. Right. Nope! Better he didn't engage.

Silla on the other hand, fired an arrow and watched it melt away after impact before declaring the same… which I guess was fair.

Moving further away from it, I let fly my Δόρυ Φωτός, and the fire in my bones ebbed away for a moment before returning, but the fluctuations in the spell were still driving me crazy!

Hymlen threw a perfect ball of light, hitting the Ooze… and Ochre? And burning away a good chunk of it. Even as it charged at us… at its slow, slow speed.

Maybe… flicking open five Circuits, I let the Od from them, pool with the Mana the spell components pulled in, and fed that into the matrices… and it worked!

My beam of Prana was… well, missing the Prana component! I got it! Now, how to apply this to other spells? But my beam seared into the Ooze, leaving very little left. And in a burst of divine light, Hymlen killed it! Yay!

Oozes… ew.

Looking around, I asked, "So, are we ready to move on?"

"Yeah." Markith agreed, "So, door or stairs?"

Walking up to the door, I placed my ear near it, not on it, that actually dampened sound, but near it, and listened. Grunting and talking in… Goblin I think? Along with… "I'm pretty sure there's Bugbears in there."

"Best to kill them now." Silla stated, "Before they ambush us, even if on accident."

"I'm good with that." Markith agreed.

Grumbling quietly, Hymlen muttered, "Here we go again."

Then Markith kicked the door open and charged at the first enemy he saw. Managing to get into range and leave a deep wound in the Bugbear's back before it could react. Other Bugbears were faster on the uptake and reacted with adroit awareness and speed.

Following him in, I took position to the side of the door and targeted the Bugbears that were at range, around the edges of the room, in the hopes of taking them down fast. My Δόρυ Φωτός carving a deep wound into one of them.

Hymlen, being Hymlen, rushed into melee with the main cluster of the Goblinoids, and hissed with his mace. But managed to have a Javalin glance off his side with enough force to stagger him.

In my expert opinion, that was a bruised set of ribs. Not that I got to stand around and critique it, as I was also the target of a Javalin. Maybe I should invest in some kind of shielding spell? Well, to my surprise, the Javalin slammed into my shoulder with enough force it should have been longed into it, except… well, it wasn't. It cut a thin gash along my shoulder before hitting the wall behind me.

That… wasn't supposed to happen? I mean, horses and gifts, and mouths, but what?

Of course, then Silla did her thing, appearing through the door and putting an arrow in the Bugbear's eye… but it somehow survived, because, of course, it did.

She also didn't hesitate to bolt back out the door and into cover. Should I do that?

I was knocked from my musings by Hymlen letting out a sulfurous curse, and a Bugbear to be hit with a short burst of fire. It sure didn't do the ugly beast any good. But hey! I got a kill that was indisputably mine as I finished off the Bugbear that had dared to throw one of the accursed lengths of wood and iron at me.

Which gave me a great view of Hymlen absolutely murdering the Bugbear he had blasted with flames. I mean, he really needed to work on that, if he was that strong, he needed to work on his aim.

Why couldn't he be more like Silla who almost always hit her targets? Like that, right there! Shit! Or maybe not? She didn't seem good at dodging, if the Javalin that had just opened up her side was any indication.

Note to self, work on your own aim too! My αστέρια shot high and slammed into the wall above one of the distant Bugbears.

And fuck! That was another Javalin slamming into me and not through… and it didn't even hurt this time? Well, more than I hurt right now anyway? What was even going on with my body?

But, to save everyone some time, the fight against the last two, or the six Bugbears, was grueling, with Hymlen almost going down. Thankfully, we managed to kill them, and it was easily agreed we needed a rest before moving on.

Returning the way we came, we headed up more stairs, and I couldn't help but sigh, "You would think we could kill those things by now with little problem."

"Pfft." Silla replied, "I doubt that's ever true. But we did have a bad showing."

At the top of the stairs, we were given a choice. Left, or right? Right took us down some stairs and towards the sound of water… Left was a door and a dead end.

"I vote left," I spoke up, "Unless that door leads to another hallway, it's probably a room that goes nowhere."

"Yeah." Markith grunted, "But I hear something the other way."

Shit…

"We don't have time to sit here and argue then, Left it is," Hymlen spoke up, heading that was.

Making it to the door, Markith opened it and we all found ourselves in a Dwarven Temple. Standing by the altar, was a Drow. A slate-skinned Elf with white hair. He wore dark robes and carried a staff of metal with a spider at the top.

The temple itself had six splintered marble pillars lining the walls, and a nine-foot-tall statue of a dwarf seated on a throne. One of the Dwarven Gods obviously. The large emeralds gleam in his eyes set into it definitely drew the- Heh! The eye. It also made me think of two things from my… fuck it, let's just call them memories. One was a monkey grabbing a large red ruby, only for everything to go to shit. The other was- well, I would sum it up as Indiana Jones.

There was no way those eyes weren't a trap.

Otherwise, the room was unremarkable, with dust, debris, some bedrolls, and a fire in front of the statue.

As we walked in, he, the magi of some flavor, moved forward toward us, and asked, "And who do we have here?"

The Drow, the Spider, wasn't alone, as there were two Bugbears in the room, but I could also make out rushing footsteps headed in our direction.

"Tss." I let out, "You presume much and with such terrible manners, even for a Drow."

My words brought him up short. "Ah, true, true. I am Nezznar the Spider."

Nodding, lips pursed I replied, "Interesting. These are Silla, Hymlen, and Markith Harlock. While I am Vaela Aeaea. I find it interesting, that you failed to mention your house. So, I would guess you are an Exile. Very interesting, as you seem to surround yourself with Doppelgangers in the form of Drow."

"How very… intuitive." He replied with a straight face, but it was more than likely a mask. "Well, why have you chosen to get in my way, time and time again?"

"Now, that is a fair question." I agreed, "Unfortunately, the answer is less interesting than you would guess… or maybe not. Many of those instances were us simply doing jobs, but it is true we were interested in saving our friend, Gundren."

"Of course." He grumbled, "Perhaps we can come to an agreement? I could turn over Nundro to you. I'm sure you can make some profit off of that? No need for things to come to blows."

It's funny, if I had been a locally trained magic user, I might have had some AOE to use, or have had to do this the hard way. Unfortunately, for him, I was not, and the Art of Magecraft was… flexible, even if it needed more time in many cases. But, to cut to the chase, while the conversation had unfolded, I had been spooling up multiple instances of my ever-reliable Δόρυ Φωτός.

"Ah," I let out, "I suppo- Δόρυ Φωτός!"

Three beams struck out… and only one actually hit. It was unpleasant, a reminder that I still needed to sit down and go over the targeting sections of my spells. Still, the one that did hit had a very visible effect on the Bugbear it hit. "Kith, the side."

"On it." He replied, charging off to meet the flanking group.

Even still, the Bugbears charged me, taking a swing, and I felt myself react, even knowing I couldn't dodge the blow. Old lessons and an odd intuition flared, and I spoke. It was not in my regular tones, but in those that I adopted when speaking Draconic, and yet, the word that fell from my mouth was very much Greek.

"Αιγίς!"

A purple-pink, three-petaled… caricature of a flower burst into existence before me, forming a quarter dome and- well, doing just what I had said. Shielding me.

The 'knowing' came instantly, knowledge giving a name to what I had done. This… Αιγίς, was a lesser version of the Ρω Αίας. The Conceptual form of the Shield of Aias, or for those of a more modern time. Ajax the Great, son of King Telamon and Periboea; second greatest hero of the whole Troy debacle, and was only outdone by Achilles, the nearly indestructible demi-god.

The Seven Burning Heavens was far stronger, greater. But Αιγίς was fine with me.

Nezznar was not as skilled or as lucky as I was, you see, Hymlen's glowy sword made a reappearance, and it struck the Spider from behind. It broke his concentration on whatever spell he had tried, and not content with that, Hymlen swung out with his mace, slamming into the closest Bugbear's ribs.

If I had to guess? Something was at least fractured.

With a glance around, I made my decision, and I closed in on Nezznar, even knowing it would leave me surrounded. My lips moved, and words fell from them, even as I struck at him my circuits open and power burning through them. "Γοητεύω / ξίφος."

And, as he fell, head separated from his body, my pain was done. The Od flowing through me with my circuits fully opened seeming to wash away the burning pain in my bones. What's more, I didn't feel like my circuits were causing my body to overheat.

But I didn't let this revelation stop me from spinning to my left and parrying a Bugbear's large mace with my cane, even as it was run through by Hymlen's floating blade.

Spinning around, I repeated my dual utterance, laying my Hex upon another Bugbear, and cleaving a deep wound into his chest.

Even as I carved into the Bugbear, I was amazed to watch Markith weather blow upon blow, with the skill and tenacity befitting the great heroes of Gaia. Given time, he would reach such heights.

With another strike, I took the head off of the Bugbear I was fighting. And from there, the rest folded. Not easily, or quietly, but they folded. Then we got to looting, or, the others did, but I had other things to do.

For example, after a quick look around, I found a chamber adjoined to the Temple by a hallway, and inside I found Nundro.

Opening the door, I let out a sigh as I found a Dwarf, in mostly good health, grumbling to himself. That is until he noticed, then he eyed me with suspicion. "What da ya want now? A new guise ain't gonna help ya."

Huh.

"Actually, Gundren sent us to protect Wave Echo from the Spider." I replied, "Who happens to be very dead."

There was a beat of silence, then disbelief set in. "Ya? Prove it."

Dwarves, stubborn as the stone they loved.

"Fine, come along then," I replied and guided him into the main Temple. "Silla, leave the statue alone."

She sighed from where she was looking up at the emeralds it had for eyes. But did as I said. "Fine, fine…"

Turning to the Nundro, I motioned at the Nezznar's body. "Good enough?"

"H-ha-hah-hahahaha!" He let out, "Dumathoin be praised. Now, we just have to figure out how to secure the rest of the mine."

Markith raised an eyebrow, and I shrugged, but Hymlen was the one to speak. "Not to worry, we can definitely help with that."

"For a price!" Silla put in.

"Hmph," Nundro vocalized, "That's fair, how's ten percent share of the mine? For your group, not individually."

Eh. "That sounds fair to me," I replied for everyone, because sometimes? It's best not to negotiate. Don't want business partners, for example, to think you are greedy.

"Then I'll follow your lead as we explore the mines." He replied, but Silla had something to say herself. "Ah, but any treasure we find is ours."

Grumbling, the Dwarf agreed, "As long as it's not a Dwarven relic."

"That's fair." Markith agreed in turn. "Well, we're going to take a bit to rest, then we can continue on."

Nundro nodded and… well, we went about setting up camp. Such as it was.

 

[Kerashana]

Ok, as the Threadmark says, these are approximations. Take them as such, I hat dealing with 'choose from list' as it's very cooky cutter. For example, everyone looks like five years older than they should. Yes, even Vaela the 95~ish year old elf.
Vaela
Markith
Hymlen
Silla

// SV wouldn't let me upload images, so these links will have to do.