The morning was grey with mist out on the water, the harbor steeped in a blanket of translucent fog.\u00a0 Ships of all sorts were docked, their masts rocking gently in time with the waves of the sea.\u00a0 People were wandering about among them, getting an early start to what was likely to be a long day.\u00a0 It struck me as ironic that after a long and eventful life, the Ruesti were simply assigned to a new one here, little different from the last.\u00a0 Why did they even need to eat?\u00a0 What was money for, here?\u00a0 What economy could possibly be sustained by the ambulatory souls of the dead Fey?\u00a0 At least, in the case of the Abyssals and Infernals, I knew where they stood on matters.\u00a0 What it was they were fighting over.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But to die and be reborn here, just to keep living as if in the mortal realm, it made no sense to me.\u00a0 What crosses a Ruesti\u2019s mind as it sits on a latrine seat?\u00a0 Ho-hum, had a great life, lived it well, died saving my people and now am granted a seemingly endless afterlife.\u00a0 Boy!\u00a0 Now I have to take a massive dump!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Something is definitely askew in the matrix of the heavens, if this is what it all supposedly comes to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I held the rope, standing at the prow of the ship, and shook my head.\u00a0 Finishing the apple I was eating, I threw the core into the foam atop one of the picture-perfect waves we were riding into dock on.\u00a0 Sered was belowdecks, at last report vomiting furiously into the bilges.\u00a0 At least that pain would be spared him later, once we\u2019d made shore.\u00a0 I might not like him much, but no one deserves the kind of seasickness he is subject to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I noticed quite quickly that we\u2019d drawn some attention as we approached the port \u2013 many of the Ruesti had stood up straight and were straining to see us through the fog as we approached.\u00a0 One or two had run at first \u2013 probably those with the better eyes, fetching whatever it was that passed for a cityguard or militia here.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sure enough, as we drew closer I could see a large number of armed Fey jogging out on the docks, scattering the civilian Ruesti before them.\u00a0 They took up positions along the leading edges of the dock platforms, nocking arrows that sprang to light as they readied themselves.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I did as I was supposed to \u2013 I stood tall on the prow and waved the white shirt I\u2019d extracted from my goods, slowly and purposefully giving what I hoped was my best \u201cnon-threatening\u201d pose.\u00a0 The real test, the one I was ready to break and run on, was when we crossed what I considered reasonable archer\u2019s range for a Fey bowman.\u00a0 We met it, and crossed it, and I wasn\u2019t rendered into a living pincushion.\u00a0 I breathed a little sigh of relief and thanked Corellon for granting his exalted with reasonably good eyes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When we were close enough, I rifted across to the dock and held up my shirt.\u00a0 \u201cGaleal is aboard, he will explain, please assist in the mooring.\u201d\u00a0 I pointed to our Eladrin guide, standing at the railing, for emphasis.\u00a0 Two of the Fey guards stood by me with weapons drawn, while the others moved to assist the ship as it closed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Galeal jumped down once the ship reached the docks, and spoke with a few of the guards.\u00a0 He then approached mine and waved their weapons down.\u00a0 \u201cThese are allies, this ship is a prize vessel.\u00a0 Their mission is urgent and time-sensitive.\u201d\u00a0 The two sheathed their swords and went on to assist in the mooring.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once the plank was lowered, Karac and Morin came down, Deimos fluttering along on a small wind he\u2019d summoned.\u00a0 Sered leaned on Karac\u2019s shoulder, looking more green than his usual light blue.\u00a0 Upon reaching the dock, everyone gathered around Galeal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He looked us all over.\u00a0 \u201cI will lead you back to your quarters, unless you would rather leave immediately and resume the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered waved his hand while shaking his head.\u00a0 Karac interpreted for him.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe it\u2019s best if we let some legs grow under us again for a little while.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think all of us are in shape for travel just yet.\u201d\u00a0 Morin grinned a little, but it was hidden well under his beard, appearing as though his moustache flouffed out for a moment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen we shall adjourn to your quarters and leave at your direction.\u201d\u00a0 He turned on his heel and led us away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was with some surprise that three hours later, we were summoned from our rooms back to the same room in which we\u2019d held conference with Callax.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t seen the Seven Deadly Sins<\/em> in port, though I had been very watchful for \u2013 and wary of \u2013 her.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We entered the room to find a dunkel on the far side, speaking to two attendant Eladrin in a soft tone.\u00a0 Clothed in rich furs, his white hair was done up in a single braid down his back, and decorated with a broach that sported one large violet jewel.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even try to speculate at the cost of that particular piece.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When he turned, I almost stepped back in shock \u2013 it was Thalvar, the merchant brother whom I had met in the City of Brass.\u00a0 He nodded to me, a thin smile playing across his face.\u00a0 \u201cGreetings to you and yours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWho are you?\u201d\u00a0 Deimos asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was about to answer him, but decided best to let him speak for himself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am Thalvar, of late from the City of Brass.\u00a0 I am brother to the other tradesmen you have met – Gendar, Devar, and Morvar .\u00a0 Your associate,\u201d he motioned to me, \u201cand I have had dealings in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I spoke up this time.\u00a0 \u201cWhat brings you here?\u00a0 And how can we be of assistance?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He withdrew a small box from his jacket, opened it and laid it on the table.\u00a0 Within was a single coin pressed into a pad of velvet.\u00a0 The coin was on fire \u2013 blue and red flames drifted across its surface, but somehow did not burn the setting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt is I, Azrael and Fellbane, I who come to offer you a service.\u00a0 Do you know what this is?\u201d He pointed to the coin.\u00a0 I shook my head in the negative, and glanced around at the others, who each expressed similar ignorance of its nature.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a shara\u2019al\u2019abnur<\/em>.\u00a0 It has a nominal value of around five hundred of your gold currency in the Bannerlands.\u00a0 Its true value is not its explicit qualities, however, but in a single implicit one.\u201d\u00a0 His eyes traveled up from the coin to pass over us all, before settling on me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI see\u2026and what would that one be?\u201d\u00a0 I already knew what was coming, but I figured I\u2019d let him take a first salvo, I might get lucky and he\u2019d let slip something.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat one is the subject of my proposed service to you.\u00a0 When I learned it, I recognized that such information, along with the coin itself, would be of some\u2026significant, value to you.\u201d\u00a0 He paused around \u2018significant\u2019 to make the point thoroughly obvious.\u00a0 Hopefully thinking of the dwarves rather than me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, obviously word of our being hunted is already spread around the City of Brass,\u201d Sered said.\u00a0 \u201cI take it the information you are offering is a bit more specific<\/em> than that?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIndeed so.\u00a0 What would such information be worth to you?\u201d\u00a0 He pushed the small box gently across the table.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We gathered around one another, glancing back and forth.\u00a0 \u201cWhat about the ship?\u00a0 That\u2019s worth a hefty sum,\u201d Karac suggested.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps a bit too hefty,\u201d Sered countered.\u00a0 \u201cWhat else do we have?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Morin scratched his beard.\u00a0 \u201cThe furs and other gear we recovered with the ship itself have to be worth a good bit, probably between a hundred to hundred and fifty [name for heavy trade bar \u2013 plat].\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar spoke from across the table.\u00a0 \u201cUnfortunately, mundane items are of little interest to my family, and coin of interest only insofar as it is responsible for the purchase of housing and food.\u00a0 No, your companions already know the currency that drives me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEnchantment.\u00a0 Items of wonderment.\u00a0 That\u2019s their stock and trade,\u201d Karac said to him.\u00a0 \u201cThey trade in magic.\u00a0 Speaking of which,\u201d he turned to Thalvar.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are the odds you might be in a position to trade for something right now?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar spread his hands.\u00a0 \u201cI have brought only this, which I thought of interest.\u00a0 I do not carry my stock around with me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cWorth a try,\u201d he muttered.\u00a0 He turned back to us.\u00a0 \u201cSo, what have we got?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I started looking my gear over, thinking easy won, easy lost<\/em> while contemplating the small dagger made from Sariel\u2019s claw.\u00a0 Before I could reach for it, Deimos spoke.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat about those books?\u00a0 The ones we found in the Library?\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t there a Mordenkainen\u2019s Tome in there?\u00a0 And the other one was a book on fire magic, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac nodded, \u201cYeah, the books!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered nodded as well.\u00a0 \u201cWho has them?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI do, one moment,\u201d Morin started digging through a bag at his side.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t noticed it before, but he was carrying two enchanted bags similar to mine.\u00a0 \u201cYep, here we go,\u201d he drew out the two large tomes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTry with just one first, those are pretty expensive,\u201d I suggested quietly.\u00a0 \u201cAnd try to keep the one about fire, please,\u201d I added for good measure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Morin put away the book with the charred cover, and walked to the table.\u00a0 He placed the silver-locked book over to the waiting merchant.\u00a0 \u201cWill this be sufficient?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar drew the book to him and unsnapped the latches.\u00a0 I noticed he used no key, but the lock disengaged itself without a second thought for him.\u00a0 His fingers drifted through the pages, their metallic sheen glimmering in the light.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHmm, perhaps, yes, this will do.\u00a0 You do not disappoint me, and I can see your wisdom in assigning proper value to information.\u201d\u00a0 He raised his eyes to us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cShould any excess value be recognized, Thalvar, I would appreciate it if you would expend it in expressing a good opinion of us if the opportunity arises,\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI never speak of my customers, but should it come to pass that I do, I will certainly speak well of you,\u201d he replied.\u00a0 \u201cI weigh the information I have against this, and I find my end tilted a little too lightly.\u00a0 One moment,\u201d he dug about in a pocket, withdrawing a small bottle and a coin-purse.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis,\u201d he pushed the bottle across to us, \u201cis a potion that enables perfect mimicry.\u00a0 Observe someone, drink it, and you can take on all aspects of their behavior and appearance for a short time.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I looked up at him.\u00a0 \u201cHow short?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He shrugged wordlessly.\u00a0 He then fingered through the purse intently, before his eyes widened.\u00a0 \u201cA-ha!\u00a0 Yes, I knew I had one of those hidden around somewhere.\u201d\u00a0 He drew out a single copper penny and laid it on the table next to the coin and potion-bottle.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA luck pence<\/em>, it carries a charm that you may find useful in a fight.\u00a0 It can only be used once, I\u2019m afraid, but one stroke of luck at the right time\u2026\u201d he trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd now, you have paid me and I owe you a service.\u00a0 This,\u201d he pointed to the flickering metal, \u201c\u2026is a blood coin<\/em>.\u00a0 There are many more like it making their way around the City of Brass as we speak.\u00a0 The efreet you killed\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe did not kill him,\u201d I interjected.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar paused.\u00a0 \u201cThe efreet that died under suspicious circumstances while in your company, was a member of a powerful family.\u00a0 They have a great deal of money behind your capture.\u00a0 They also have a great many ears in a great many places.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCallax, he must have lied through his teeth about us, blamed us for this.\u201d\u00a0 Karac grumbled.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOr just encouraged following a particular conclusion,\u201d Sered volunteered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar continued.\u00a0 \u201cThe spirit of this prince slain in your presence is that of an elemental.\u00a0 While not truly dead, he is banished for a century to a\u2026lesser, form.\u00a0 Be conscious that his family may have questioned him directly, in which case he may not be altogether forthcoming with the true tale behind this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn which case, they probably haven\u2019t even heard that his ship was destroyed by the Astral Warwings with that destroyer engine.\u201d\u00a0 Deimos spoke quietly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps not.\u00a0 But at present, his, and perhaps this Callax\u2019s, version of the story is the only one they are given.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou said capture, not kill.\u00a0 Why capture?\u201d I was thinking probably for torture, and so on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEfreeti justice is an interesting system.\u00a0 Technically you are not murderers if found guilty, since the prince is not actually dead.\u00a0 But whoever is found guilty at trial of the death will be sentenced to one hundred years of slavery, in the service of the family whose member was lost.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSurely there would be some protections for a slave there, wouldn\u2019t there?\u201d Sered asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe killing of a slave under sentence would yield a similar punishment to the murderer, and no permanent<\/em> physical harm is permitted\u2026\u201d Thalvar put his thumb beneath his chin.\u00a0 \u201cThere are all manner of laws surrounding slavery among the Efreeti.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re big on that, it would seem,\u201d I suggested.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar inclined his head.\u00a0 \u201cAs you say.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhich leaves the door open for a century of torture, and there\u2019s no guarantee you won\u2019t be working in a mine for a full hundred years,\u201d Sered said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not a pleasant thought.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are our odds in court?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar turned a little.\u00a0 \u201cThey are the only odds you have, and they are not the best.\u00a0 If you prefer, I can accompany you back to the City of Brass and connect you with some of my business partners, who are themselves experts in the Efreeti judicial system.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered disagreed, waving his hands slowly.\u00a0 \u201cNo, we have a job to do, and regardless of the personal cost to us, it must be done.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs you say.\u201d\u00a0 Thalvar hooked his thumbs into pockets on his coat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou said this efreet was a prince, is that so?\u00a0 Was he a son of the king?\u201d I really didn\u2019t want to know the answer to this question, but it needed asking.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe was heir to the family Azim, whose father sits on the Ring of Smoke.\u00a0 In fact, his father is Grand Vizier to the King, and sits at his right hand.\u00a0 The Sharif Al\u2019Azim is he who has placed this coin upon your collective heads.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I groaned.\u00a0 \u201cThis just keeps getting better,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, it does not sit well with the king that his close personal friend\u2019s son be defeated by what they will see as an upstart pack of mortals.\u201d Thalvar finished.\u00a0 \u201cThe Grand Vizier is an exceedingly wealthy man.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHopefully a wise one, as well.\u201d Sered replied.\u00a0 \u201cFor not killing his son, he sure does have a bone to pick with us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe thinks we murdered his son.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t you be a little upset?\u201d Morin asked quietly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, I suppose so, but he was evil, and trying to drag us into his fight!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cNot much we can do about it now.\u00a0 If we were to return to the City of Brass, could we expect fair treatment?\u00a0 If we were to turn ourselves in for trial, that is?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar raised his hands unknowingly.\u00a0 \u201cFair to one is rapacious to another.\u00a0 I suspect you do not share perspectives on the definition of that word.\u00a0 You would be arrested and incarcerated, and in all likelihood tried as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMaybe if we get lost in the Red Prison for a century or two, we will be forgotten or considered to have served out the sentence.\u201d\u00a0 Deimos was half-joking.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cUnlikely,\u201d Thalvar said.\u00a0 \u201cEfreeti have long memories, and a reach to match.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat does this trial mean to us?\u201d Sered asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thalvar thought it over.\u00a0 \u201cKaza\u2019el Azim, the efreet who was kil\u2026who died, is the price to be paid.\u00a0 As I said, that price will be one hundred years of slavery to house Azim, should you be found guilty.\u00a0 You would be given the opportunity to present your side of the case, in court in the City of Brass.\u00a0 Your words would be held up against those of Kaza\u2019el, such as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFantastic, we get tried and as a witness against us, a diviner paid by the father of the victim, auguring the whimpers of a crippled marmot or something,\u201d Deimos fumed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I grinned at the thought, even if it was a grim proceeding.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cScoff if you will, but the laws of the City of Brass are respected across the planes, despite their intricacy.\u00a0 Should you need it in the future, as I mentioned, I will establish a link between you and at least one of several barristers in my acquaintance.\u201d\u00a0 He looked from one to the other of us, then took his hat from one of the Ruesti standing behind him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd now, I have delivered the message I brought, and a fair exchange has transpired.\u201d\u00a0 He clapped his hands and held them, palms out, towards us.\u00a0 \u201cI thank you, and I look forward to our next meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGiven the circumstances, it may be a while before then.\u201d I said apologetically.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps.\u00a0 In any case, good journeys to you.\u201d\u00a0 He raised his hand to the brim of his hat and gave a farewell gesture.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy thanks, and to you as well.\u201d\u00a0 I bowed with a similar gesture.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The others bid their farewells as Thalvar left.\u00a0 As soon as he was gone, Karac looked at the table.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI suggest Morin take the luck charm,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cOf all of us, when luck goes badly, at least he is there to catch us.\u00a0 He is not so lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There was no objection, so the penny made its way to him.\u00a0 \u201cWhat about the potion?\u201d Karac asked.\u00a0 \u201cWho is likely to need to disguise themselves?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought it over.\u00a0 \u201cWell, it chagrins me to say so, but I am probably the most likely of us to be attempting anything of a deceptive nature like that.\u00a0 I guess I put my hand in for the potion.\u201d\u00a0 Again, there were no objections.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNow,\u201d I said, looking at the small velvet case and the burning coin within it.\u00a0 \u201cWhat about the shara\u2019al\u2019abnur?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered grimaced sourly.\u00a0 \u201cDamn it, alright, give it here.\u201d\u00a0 He snapped the lid shut and pocketed it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo, back on the road to Carantharas, eh?\u201d\u00a0 Deimos asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, let\u2019s go.\u201d\u00a0 Sered said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought it over.\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps we\u2019d better leave soon.\u00a0 If anyone and their brother can track us down this far, and the Azim family is as wealthy and powerful as all that, then maybe its best we remove ourselves from the site of the \u2018most recent sighting,\u2019 don\u2019t you think?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac nodded.\u00a0 \u201cTwo hours from now?\u00a0 I gotta go pack.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Morin shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cTwo hours, fine, let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I had no idea what would take two hours to get ready, but I was up for it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The following day dawned cool again, misty with a light rain once more as we walked out into the wilds from our campsite.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhy are we walking again?\u201d Morin asked, panting somewhat.\u00a0 \u201cNot that I mind walking, it\u2019s good for the legs, but couldn\u2019t we be on, you know, horses?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Deimos grunted agreement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Galeal looked back.\u00a0 \u201cHorses are walking sacks of meat.\u00a0 Where we\u2019re going, eight hundred pounds of meat on the hoof is almost guaranteed to slow us down, while we fight off every aberration within fifty miles.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIs that how you lure them?\u201d\u00a0 I asked.\u00a0 \u201cWith horses, or something like?\u00a0 When you hunt, I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d he replied.\u00a0 \u201cOnly the dumbest will simply be lured like that.\u00a0 Though I think I did hear of someone doing it a while back.\u201d\u00a0 He began to whistle a little tune.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac apparently hadn\u2019t slept well.\u00a0 He grunted:\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re so cheerful, what for?\u00a0 We\u2019re heading into the wilds, there are lots of critters that want to eat us, and you\u2019re just whistling along.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAny time I venture into the Hunting Lands, it reminds me of home.\u00a0 This is how home should have been, it feels more right,<\/em> you see?\u201d\u00a0 He waved about with his bow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Dwur grunted wordlessly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The day wore on, with the \u2018sun\u2019 (I say it that way, because while there was light, and it did seem to come from a specific direction, there was no glowing golden ball one would normally consider to be a sun) traversing the sky in a predictable fashion.\u00a0 Slightly after noon, Sered and Zatsa came up from the rear after a short and quiet consultation.\u00a0 Zatsa looked different \u2013 darker, somehow, shaded in greens and browns, its eyes a deep and clear shade of green.\u00a0 They\u2019d been white when I\u2019d looked at it this morning, I swear.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe have a problem,\u201d Sered said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Morin looked up from his trudging.\u00a0 \u201cHmm?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zatsa gestured behind.\u00a0 \u201cWe are being followed,\u201d it said.\u00a0 \u201cFive, at least six enemies.\u00a0 They smell like fire.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So soon?<\/em> I wondered.\u00a0 \u201cI take it these are the first fingers of the arm of Azim coming our way, then?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMost likely,\u201d Sered confirmed.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re at least thirty minutes behind us, so we have a few choices before us \u2013 evade, confront, or continue.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac thumped the haft of his weapon on the ground.\u00a0 \u201cI hope that last one was a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an option.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zatsa waved a bra\u2026an arm towards the fore.\u00a0 \u201cThere is a small river ahead, suitable territory for an ambush.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cConfront, I prefer it,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cNo way they\u2019re going to let us get to our destination and perform a big ritual without interruption.\u00a0 And fighting on a stair with no guardrail, and no guarantee of its duration, doesn\u2019t seem so wise to me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd an ambush seems like a really good idea,\u201d Karac said.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s let the other guys have it for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We double-timed it forward, to a place where the trees thinned out slightly, adjacent to the river Zatsa had referred to.\u00a0 Zatsa and I looked around and plotted locations and angles for a moment, and we decided this would be a good site.\u00a0 I pointed out a few trees, to which Zatsa agreed, and we set about laying our trap.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered would be the trigger \u2013 when he acted, the rest of us would fly into action.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Morin hid between a\u00a0 few boulders, while Karac found a tree with a large hollow rotted out of it some distance back \u2013 where he could wait for the trailers to pass – and stuck himself inside it.\u00a0 We covered him up with some loose mulch laying around, and re-brushed the area around him to look normal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The rest of us made a set of tracks beyond the river, to maintain the illusion of our recent passage here, before attending to our own hiding places.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zatsa went up the side of a tree and seemed to meld<\/em> right into it, fading into the leaves.\u00a0 I could still see it, but that was because I knew where to look.\u00a0 There were one or two moments where I looked away and for a second and for the life of me, that thing just vanished.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I look back, I realize again that for someone like myself, having been born into a society and species where gender took on a specific role, everything about a person\u2019s life demanded that \u2013 even language bent itself towards expressions of things having gender.\u00a0 Inanimates were always \u201cit\u201d, but every creature and living thing was either \u201che\u201d or \u201cshe\u201d.\u00a0 I was confounded by this plant-like thing (and who knows? It could have been entirely plant, but even in the Feywild plants that moved were rarely truly ambulatory, they seemed to always have to carry a root system around with them, that itself demanded a period of inactivity and rest in earth).\u00a0 I needed a way to refer to it that wasn\u2019t in the same vein as what I would use to call a table, yet Turathian language did not permit me in that regard.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fascinating insights become available to you when you have the time to consider them.\u00a0 Perhaps that\u2019s why hindsight is considered so valuable.\u00a0 I suppose when you have potentially years of time to re-evaluate and consider possible outcomes, things are so much more clear.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But enough of that.\u00a0 This is a journal, not an indulgence of insight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sered clambered up a tree as well, somewhat less gracefully than Zatsa\u2019s ivy-like clinging, but well enough that he moved without too much difficulty into the lower branches.\u00a0 He pulled his cloak in around him and became to a passing glance little more than a squirrel\u2019s nest.\u00a0 Deimos flew high up into the branches of another, well out of sight from the ground.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I rifted up, flickering from branch to branch until I found one that gave me a good view of the clearing while concealing me from the pathway below.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We waited.\u00a0 I was pretty sure none of them were fishers, and I hoped that we wouldn\u2019t blow the shot with someone getting impatient.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After only a little time, I could smell the smoke too.\u00a0 Beneath us, I could hear something passing.\u00a0 A sizzling, almost like frying bacon, passed beneath us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before long, they moved into view \u2013 leading the group was a huge hound, easily ten stone in weight; smoke oozed from its muzzle and trickles of flaming spittle dropped from its jaws as it snuffled its way left and right, following along our path.\u00a0 Two Archons followed it, a good thirty feet apart and well behind the hound; I recognized them from my wanderings in the Elemental Chaos with Lion\u2019s Lun<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Funny, even now, knowing what I do, that\u2019s still hard to think of.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the center, a large efreet carrying a roll of chain over its shoulder.\u00a0 Flanking the efreet, slightly behind, two floating pyres of flame \u2013 pure elementals \u2013 attended it.\u00a0 Mercenaries all, I supposed, or perhaps the personal forces of House Azim.\u00a0 I drew out Riftspar<\/em> and Dreaming Fire<\/em>, preparing to move against the efreet.\u00a0 Sered would no doubt choose the main creature to attack.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As if on queue, he did just that.\u00a0 I heard the air displace and saw the flowing grey of his robes as he translocated across the field to lay a grip on the efreet\u2019s chains with his off hand, the greatsword in his right held ready for a swing.\u00a0 As his blow began its swing, they both were pulled away to one side of the group, away from the support of the other elementals.\u00a0 His blow fell upon the armor of the huge leader, and although it did not penetrate the plating, it laid a dent upon the steel plates that I was certain would have cleft a man in two.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the same time, I took the efreet\u2019s spirit in my figurative grasp and twisted it, linking a fey curse of prescience on it, and its form immediately took on the slight halo revealing its nearest strand of fate for my companions and I to take advantage of.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And did we ever!\u00a0 Karac roared out of his hiding place like the inexorable fall of a boulder down a mountainside, and smote the efreet with his axe so strongly that the being stumbled back against a tree trunk fully twenty feet away.\u00a0 Zatsa was doing something among the leaves beneath us, but I couldn\u2019t make out what it was, and Morin had blasted the hound into smouldering bits with a blast of light from his hammer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Where the efreet had crashed against the tree, Deimos unleashed a bolt of lightning that wracked upon its armor, with power so fierce that it must have flash-vaporized the sap of the bole where it stood, because the trunk of the tree exploded outward.\u00a0 The efreet was thrown to the ground, where it lay twitching and juddering.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zatsa\u2019s own spell took effect then, pushing the two elementals up against the Archons, where the four fouled each others\u2019 movements.\u00a0 I rifted own out of the tree to the ground beside Sered, as the four began to close with him.\u00a0 Karac closed ranks with us as well, while Morin moved to a safer vantage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Being extra careful to avoid giving my enemies a chance to afflict my companions with my own spell, I opened a new portal to the realm of Nightmare between us and the approaching elementals, catching the lead two in its blast and giving the others the choice of entry into it or forcing them around it \u2013 effectively delaying their close while causing maximum harm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karac and Sered moved around to one side of the fountain of terrors while I kept the portal open, sliding it slightly off to encourage the others\u2019 moving around further away.\u00a0 While they closed with an elemental and an Archon \u2013 the other two still fighting their way around my zone \u2013 Sered paused for a moment to shout at us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWare below!\u00a0 Enemy beneath!\u201d\u00a0 He gestured downwards, and continued to close alongside Karac.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The four came together in a flurry of strikes, fire and steel glimmering in the mixed light of the glade.\u00a0 I saw Morin taking on the other Archon, on the opposite side of the fight before me, and darted through a rift to get across to him.\u00a0 I appeared closer to it than I\u2019d intended, in reach, and it swung at me with a clenched fist wreathed in flames.\u00a0 I took the blow full on the chest, growling through the pain while pushing a thrust of Dreaming Fire<\/em> into its side.\u00a0 I saw Morin grin savagely as he saw the chill of nightmares ripple through the Archon, distracting it enough that he had an uninterrupted full swing with his hammer.\u00a0 I felt his blow ring through the Archon and down my own blade to sing out in my hands, and the elemental burst into ash and cinder between us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I heard a shout behind me, and turned again to face the four behind me, and felt the ground rumble.\u00a0 I was thrown from my feet by a sudden ripple in the earth, as if it had suddenly turned fluid and subject to waves as the ocean was.\u00a0 The fiery elementals were also suffering similarly, and amazingly even Karac seemed to have trouble keeping his feet.\u00a0 Sered bounced back, away from the melee, just as the ground beneath us drained away and down into a dark, pulsing well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019d never been in the gullet of something so huge \u2013 and hoped never to be again. Whatever this thing was, it had to be at least fifteen, perhaps twenty feet across, and my orientation was completely shot as it rolled around.\u00a0 The interior was lit at least for a short while by the burning elemental and archon, but both were lost to my sight as I was forced further down into the belly of the creature.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I found myself somewhere deep, encased in a muscular sac that was lined with rough barbs, I assumed which had to be pointing deeper into the creature.\u00a0 Morin was there with me, struggling to pull himself up and out.\u00a0 I latched Dreaming <\/em>Fire to my harness and used Riftspar <\/em>to anchor myself by digging in into the side.\u00a0 The walls were covered to dripping with an acidic mucous, and pushing out with my arms only succeeded in splattering more of the stuff on me.\u00a0 Taking a good grip on the walls, I managed to shove Morin up a ways before losing sight of him.\u00a0 I heard him call back to me \u201cHurry yourself out, I\u2019ve got a way myself,\u201d before he vanished out of my vision.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I struggled forward a ways after him, pushing the inert cinder-form body of the archon further down.\u00a0 I managed to make it almost far enough to where I could begin to see glimmers of light \u2013 perhaps I\u2019d found the mouth of it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Of course, that wasn\u2019t going to happen, as I discovered all the thing needed to do was swallow.\u00a0 The walls contracted sharply around me, shoving me back down with such force that I almost lost my grip on my dagger.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The swallow had forced me past several of the barbs quite roughly, and I was bleeding from half a dozen places when I finally realized what a fool I was being.\u00a0 I was holding my escape route in my hands!\u00a0 I focused on Riftspar<\/em> and used it to slash open a hole in the world beside me, and sent myself a long distance to one side.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I appeared out in the glade, the sudden light a welcome feeling on my eyes and skin.\u00a0 I stood quickly, to find myself looking back at an enormous wurm, whose diameter must have been at least twenty feet.\u00a0 It\u2019s indigo surface glimmered with strange reflections, and I could feel the sense of death radiating from it.\u00a0 Sered was charging it, and I could see a foot \u2013 probably Karac\u2019s from the size of it \u2013 sticking out of the great maw as it raised its head off the ground and gulped him down with huge swallows.\u00a0 It opened its mouth again with a roar, and Sered leaped directly in, catching the roar up with a short hurking noise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It nsapped its maw shut behind the flailing Deva, and before any of us knew what it was about, it had shoved itself down into the earth beside us.\u00a0 The huge bulk of the thing slid fast as a snake down the hole, leaving a hole wide enough for a dancing hall behind.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt went down!\u00a0 Come on!\u00a0 They\u2019re stuck in there!\u201d I shouted, and leaped down into the hole behind it, using the flying enchantment on my boots to glide in and chase after it, coming to rest behind the huge thing.\u00a0 I knew if I struck at it, it would be only a parting shot, as the thing could no doubt move faster than I could through the loose earth.\u00a0 Instead, I rifted myself back, to what I hoped was out of reach if it turned on me; the rift leaking stuff of nightmare and chill, slowing it in place with the distraction of the spillover of horrors.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It worked as I\u2019d hoped, the thing crept forward only a slight bit, just as my companions reached the edge of the hole above and dove in after it.\u00a0 Deimos flinging lightning, Morin spewing fire and radiance from his hammer, while Zatsa reached the edge of the hole above.\u00a0 Galeal, meanwhile, was shouting from above.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI can see its track, I\u2019m following it up here!\u201d\u00a0 His voice faded even as he shouted this, presumably running further away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For a few moments it seemed as though this would work, having me run up to the creature and rift away, slowing it down to keep it accessible to my companions.\u00a0 We manged a few good strikes this way, until it shook us off like so many fleas \u2013 it vibrated its bulk within the tunnel, and brought the roof down on us.\u00a0 Suddenly, all was black and it was everything we could do to dig ourselves free.\u00a0 By the time we had extricated ourselves, theremust have been who knows how many tons of dirt and rock between us and the enormous wurm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While Deimos and Zatsa continued to dig, I displaced myself to the surface, and went chasing after Galeal.\u00a0 Perhaps if it was keeping close to the surface we could find another way to snare and destroy it before it completely digested Sered and Karac.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My concern turned out to be misplaced, for as the Ruesti and I raced along the bent ground after the huge wurm, the ground beneath us gave a great heaving, and collapsed partially beneath us with a waft of noxious vapor.\u00a0 All around us, brush and trees fell dead, and an enormous tree before us expired almost instantly \u2013 it seemed to rot all at once, from the ground upwards.\u00a0 The leaves of it fell in unison, a sudden rain of brown and grey; its trunk sloughing bark as a snake shedding skin.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey must have killed it,\u201d Galeal called out.\u00a0 \u201cDown here beneath us somewhere!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOkay \u2013 wait here, I\u2019m going to have the others keep digging.\u00a0 If it kept to a relatively level course, they should be able to use the tunnel to get out.\u00a0 Otherwise we go in from here, down.\u201d\u00a0 He nodded and looked around.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We did eventually get through \u2013 digging through the original tunnel through which it had fled.\u00a0 We found Karac and Sered down there, somewhat worse for wear, but alive.\u00a0 Once we got them out, we ascertained that everyone was without severe injury.\u00a0 A quick jump in the river cleaned off the remaining gastric fluids.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While we were searching across the field to glean what we could of the elementals\u2019 remaining gear, the others related to me that the remaining elemental had fled the field at the emergenceof the wurm.\u00a0 I wished they\u2019d been able to destroy it, but there wasn\u2019t much to be done on that front. Perhaps whatever tale it told of us would discourage others from pursuit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or force them to bring stronger forces with them.\u00a0 That would be my luck.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In any case, we were not accosted by another elemental team for quite some time.\u00a0 We spent the next three weeks in the wilds, searching for the ruins of Carantharas.\u00a0 Along the way, the terrain shifted several times \u2013 from the familiar enormous woods we were in, to grey, rocky mountains, and finally into meadowlands.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We also stumbled upon many signs of the land\u2019s inhabitants on our path.\u00a0 The first, a ruined camp with several bodies \u2013 outsiders such as ourselves, their bodies rotted away, leaving skeletons bound together by skin and sinew dried with age.\u00a0 While checking the camp out, Sered found a ring of some enchantment on one of the bodies [TJT note \u2013 what ring? And who got it?]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We also saw a strangely-mottled behir among the mountainous rocks, which we avoided with care.\u00a0 As well, we skipped by a collection of beholders, holding some form of convocation like a circle of perverted mushrooms.\u00a0 At one point further on, we ended up in a short confrontation with a group of fomorians, who broke off the fight shortly after it began when we dropped their leading Redcaps.\u00a0 About two weeks on we were accosted shortly by a pack of dire wolves, who were dissuaded from treating us as prey by a lightning show Deimos put on.\u00a0 Only three days before finding Carantharas, the strangest finding of all greeted us:\u00a0 an enormous flattened space in the mountains, as if some giant hand had leveled the ground around us.\u00a0 Within it, what we initially took to be a dead and petrified forest turned out to be bones \u2013 the remains of a dragon so huge we could hardly bring ourselves to believe its magnitude.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Galeal put a name to the beast \u2013 Kazurax, also known as \u201cBroken-Wing.\u201d\u00a0 The dragon had terrorized the wilds for ages, and had served for quite some time to keep the area purged of abominations (and Ruesti) until two or three centuries past.\u00a0 It had vanished then, most thought finally falling prey to age or defeat.\u00a0 Whatever the case, we\u2019d found its final resting place, the bones cleaned of all flesh.\u00a0 We figured its lair to be nearby, but our time constraints prevented further investigation.\u00a0 I and Morin made careful note of the location, intending to one day return to put the search on \u2013 for such a great beast\u2019s treasure would be considerable indeed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When we finally reached the broken and shattered remains of Carantharas, the light was lowering deep in the sky.\u00a0 We were all worn and tired from the weeks of what seemed like endless travel, and everyone desperately needed a bath – even Sered.\u00a0 Especially Karac.\u00a0 We had taken to walking a good distance apart, but that often didn’t save one from an unfortunate change in the wind.\u00a0 I took to observing us as we walked, the shifting pattern of who-walks-where that was so similar to watching the movements of a herd clustering against the cold.\u00a0 A shift of the wind, and a wide-open lane would shift like a wind-sock around the party, melting away from one side only to reappear on the other.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The walls, such as they were, were stone-masonry of about thirty feet in height.\u00a0 Time and battle had taken their toll, and the natural growth of plants and vines had draped green carpets all across their faces, reaching up beyond the crenellations.\u00a0 Blossoms were everywhere on the green, from the tiniest white stars to enormous pink and yellow blooms the size of a dinner plate, and the air was thick with their scent over the wet decay of the swampland around us.\u00a0 Insects occasionally chirped, but unlike the Feywild, there were no massive parasites.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Evening, such as it was, would be upon us soon.\u00a0 We viewed the walls of the doomed city from a distance, observing the clefts and ruin visited upon them.\u00a0 All around the outside, the land was wet and swampy, dotted with pools and dark-leaved trees of broad stature.\u00a0 Old, torn tents were also scattered about, as though the remnants of Tarsis had been somehow transplanted and the lost homes of the Al-Kabeth were returned to a dingy life here.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In spite of our exhaustion, we decided to broach the walls and enter the city before nightfall, to take advantage of the possibility that moonlight might be available this night.\u00a0 Although our chest and its inscribed ritual contained the correct moonlight, it only served as a trigger for the stair \u2013 the power of the enchantment that manifested its precarious steps came from the pure flood of lunar power available in real moonshine.\u00a0\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t been a fan of just marching through, instead suggesting that we take a breather for a day or two and take advantage of some of the clearer pools to handle some of our less appealing fragrances.\u00a0 Unfortunately I was overruled, but at least I tried.\u00a0 My argument that we\u2019d be easily tracked just by our vapor trail was apparently not as convincing as I\u2019d first imagined.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As we approached the walls, choosing a larger breach where we\u2019d likely find it easier to climb through, something else caught on the wind.\u00a0 A low, moaning trumpet, very close \u2013 almost too soft to carry over what wind there was here.\u00a0 Unfortunately I didn\u2019t have time to voice a warning, and before I knew it, the first attacker topped the walls.\u00a0 Even though the city\u2019s barrier was some thirty feet in height, the spider-legged horror that clambered over it made it look like little more than a tall garden fence.\u00a0 The creature was probably about eight hundred pounds, and formed a bit like a centaur \u2013 except, of course, using a spider rather than horse for its lower half.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen driders \u2013 strange spider-dunkel fusions assembled by their demon-queen matron.\u00a0 Those creatures are put together cleanly, the fronts and backs or tops and bottoms generally look like they are at least supposed to be that way.\u00a0 This thing\u2026didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Its parts overlapped unevenly, and where man met spider, a reddish oozing pus fell from the join.\u00a0 Stretched end-to-end, I guessed the thing\u2019s legs would easily have spanned fifteen feet.\u00a0 Upon its back, offsetting the black bristling hairs there, a crimson-and-white pattern decorated its back that looked like some strange ancient calendar, circular in form with a wide variety of symbols in it.\u00a0 Part of me wondered if those symbols were meaningful, or simply some part of the natural colors of the spider whose abdomen that used to be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The face of it was elongated, thin, like the nose of a racing dog, and it\u2019s maw was crammed full of teeth of the same variety, with a whip-like black tongue that reached up and combed over its face.\u00a0 The eyes were a dull green, the oblong pupils reminiscent of a goat\u2019s.\u00a0 To either side of the mouth, wicked-sharp tusks mounted to the sides of its jaw flung long strands of yellow-green pus as it whipped its head back and forth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As it slid down the wall, its claws digging small gravel out of the great stone blocks, it shrieked with a ferocity that spoke more of the pain it suffered than the pain it intended to inflict.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We all spread out, instinctively getting distance in case the thing could fling some form of bomb, or more likely web, that would entrap us as a group.\u00a0 Weapons came out, spells were readied.\u00a0 Sinking my grip into the spirit of it, I found myself with Dreaming Fire <\/em>in my hand, rushing up with Sered beside me and Karac just beside him.\u00a0 It was at that moment that I realized something and found a singular thought crossing my mind.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How the hell did I end up doing this?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Beside Karac, one of the pools of fetid water burst upward in a great plume, something humanoid and lizardlike rocketing out of the water.\u00a0 Propelled by an enormous crocodilian tail, it had momentum to not only exit the pool but to bring itself to a crouch and cast a thick net around his ankles as it readied a spear to skewer him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I kept going forward while Sered hung back to assist Karac, and found myself \u2013 regrettably \u2013 alone.\u00a0 Although I was certain I could root the huge spider abomination in place for a short while, I wasn\u2019t so sure I could hold it off from them forever.\u00a0 Still and all, dug through the barrier between the worlds to the fields of Levistus once again, casting small rift-charged spears of frigid cold at the thing.\u00a0 As the ice beganto spread down along its legs, I used the power of my curse to rift it a fair distance back towards the wall and southward, putting another pool and a large tree between\u00a0 it and my companions.\u00a0 As it emerged from the portal I\u2019d created, the ice completed its work, cementing the creature in place where it stood, howling its frustration at me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was about to look back to Sered and Karac, to offer what help I could, when I was distracted by movement at the wall.\u00a0 Glancing quickly over, I saw an old crone emerge from the greenery draping the wals, a tattered hood covering her.\u00a0 She gestured at me, andI felt the familiar sensation of a rift opening \u2013 though this time, it was not me doing the opening.\u00a0 I felt myself pulled through, and found myself face-to-face with the old woman.\u00a0 She looked up in almost a leisurely fashion, before whipping a claw across my face, scoring me with sharp claws.\u00a0 And claw it was, long nails blackened with age and unwashed filth, the knuckles easily twice the width of the fingerbones they joined.\u00a0 Her face was staggeringly out of place \u2013 she had the fresh blonde bangs of a youthful adolescent, surrounding a lovely face that belonged on a farmer\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Except, perhaps, for the pitted and discolored teeth that she smiled at me with.\u00a0 Following through with her raking pass over my face, she brought the bloody claw to her mouth and licked a bit of me into her mouth, then spat it back at me.\u00a0 I felt the rift take hold of me again\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2026and found myself in similar surrounds, but completely alone.\u00a0 My companions were missing, my enemies were missing, I was without company in this swampy mess and evening light.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long before I realized I was on the opposite side of the wall, as looking back showed me the huge stone edifice covered in greenery.\u00a0 More pools and trees surrounded me, the sun was still where it belonged (though I was in its shade now, the wall between us), and listening revealed the sounds of a fight on the other side.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Perhaps it was the battle sounds that kept me unaware.\u00a0 Or the pressure differential in my ears of being unexpectedly rifted.\u00a0 Whatever the case, I didn\u2019t hear my assailant coming\u2026I certainly picked up on him when he wrapped his long fingers around my neck, though, that\u2019s for certain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGlaak!\u201d\u00a0 was the most intelligent thing I could think to say as my hands reflexively leaped to grasp the ones busily throttling me.\u00a0 I practically stabbed myself in the brain with Riftspar when my hands went up, gave myself a wonderful slice on the right side of my head, right up to the base of my antler.\u00a0 I also felt a deep pain in my core, whoever it was had done something similar to my curse \u2013 not a harmful one though .\u00a0 More like a marker, a drag on me that I felt clinging like a leech.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I twisted about, and it didn\u2019t take much twisting around to realize that I couldn\u2019t see my attacker.\u00a0 Not as in, I couldn\u2019t get him into view, as in he was invisible \u2013 even staring right at him, I couldn\u2019t see him at all.<\/em> Much as I had Fey curses that could render me unseen to my targets, this fellow was unseen completely \u2013 I didn\u2019t see him before he touched me, and he didn\u2019t materialize after attacking me.\u00a0 Not much could do that.\u00a0 I\u2019m schooled in arcana, even if I\u2019m bound to different power sources now, and there are only a few kinds of invisibility that are genuinely common.\u00a0 One throws a veil over the subject, so that passersby all fail to see the subject \u2013 but that takes a lot of energy to maintain, and such a veil is generally pretty fragile.\u00a0 Violent acts \u2013 specifically the aggressive emotions involved \u2013 tend to rip such a veil up.\u00a0 Another is one of the kinds I use, where the subject is actually blinded, either to a specific target or blinded in general (the latter being a more powerful form).\u00a0 These usually require a touch or a contact through attack.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the third one I know \u2013 and that\u2019s native invisibility.\u00a0 As in, the creature is naturally invisible, or can achieve the state with little or no trouble.\u00a0 That, or it suffers no disruption due to violent actions and the thoughts that accompany them, so a veil simply flows around it without interruption.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or perhaps a combination of them.\u00a0 Given my experience here, I\u2019d say either my attacker achieved invisibility as a natural state, or violent thoughts gave it no more of a hiccup in its existence than scratching a pimple.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or both.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n None of this gave me a whole lot of comfort, I should point out.\u00a0 In fact, I found it pretty freaking alarming.\u00a0 Because there aren\u2019t many creatures known that work that way.\u00a0 One or two of them are undead \u2013 but they generally smell bad.\u00a0 Air elementals are, by nature, made of air and are hard to discern \u2013 but they\u2019re loud as hell when they\u2019re mad, and the grass would be flying every which way.\u00a0 That left only one off the top of my head, and that one worried the snot out of me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Well, that might have actually been it choking me, I do remember in a distinguished moment blowing a big booger out onto my cheek while it was thrashing me around.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Snot aside, this had to be one of the worst assassins of the Astral Sea.\u00a0 An Astral Stalker had its claws around my neck.\u00a0 It certainly made sense with regard to that clinging thrum in my spirit, they were known to mark their chosen prey for tracking.\u00a0 And that tracking could go for ages, across planar boundaries even.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not a pleasant consideration.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With that in mind, I focused a deep curse into the Stalker and stabbed at where I figured its center mass would be, and felt Riftspar<\/em> bite in.\u00a0 The Stalker hissed viciously as the blade sank into it, and one hand\u2019s grip released from my throat, and immediately fastened around my wrist.\u00a0 The instant release of pressure on my neck gave me a chance to draw a ragged breath while pulling Riftspar\u2019s<\/em> own reserves of power to open a rift and slip across the wampland.\u00a0 I left it a little leaky, wisps of frost and shadowy tendrils of nightmare slipping out and whipping around.\u00a0 The ice and shadow wrapped around the stalker, and as I slipped into the half-realm and away from its grasp I could see them wrapping around it, slowing it down.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I emerged fifteen yards or so away, whipped an Eyebite<\/em> at the stalker, and immediately rippled myself across the landscape again, to emerge at the top of the wall.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t see any of my companions, though I could hear the sounds of fighting nearby, somewhere.\u00a0 The sound was being bounced around off the giant wall and the trees, and unfortunately all the foliage was softening the direction of it all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The real shocking part was seeing that thing come after me.\u00a0 After it ripped itself free of the impediments of my slash in the planar wall, it immediately started in my direction.\u00a0 I saw the grass parting, and the water of a nearby pool splashed furiously where I suppose a foot stepped in it.\u00a0 I assumed it still couldn\u2019t see me, but that didn\u2019t mean it couldn\u2019t trace me by the mark it had made on me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I won\u2019t make any bones about it \u2013 I ran.\u00a0 I immediately ported down to the opposite side of the wall and just opened up at a full sprint of rifts, bouncing from one location to the next.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have no idea whether that worked or not, but for some reason it chose not to pursue.\u00a0 Maybe it picked up on the sounds of fighting and joined in, or perhaps it simply decided to play with me and give me some lead, but whatever the case, it left off and I found myself alone in the lush green of the swamp.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The silent<\/em> lush green of the swamp.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Oh, holy crap.\u00a0 I was alone.\u00a0 I\u2019d become separated from the group and was alone in an abomination-infested swampland.\u00a0 Yeah, frying pan wasn\u2019t looking so bad now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once I caught my breath, I started porting my way back the way I\u2019d come, until I reached the wall.\u00a0 Its broken face hidden beneath the waves of flowers and leaves spoke volumes of the grandeur that must have once been on display here.\u00a0 I imagined legions of Ruesti marching along its length, spears and bows in hand, standards fluttering in the breeze.\u00a0 The visions and the sweet smelling flowers were intoxicating.\u00a0 I even forgot the pursuit, the fight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I snapped out of my reverie to realize that it was full nightfall.\u00a0 Some sort of frog was chirruping loudly all around me, a cacophonous symphony of animal life.\u00a0 It gave me pause \u2013 were they born here, these frogs?\u00a0 Were they truly alive?\u00a0 Or were these the spirits-granted-flesh of frogs long dead in my world, the Ruesti of the amphibian world?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What a strange thought.\u00a0 It seemed like the drug-induced ramblings of a terrible storyteller, or a great indicator that gods \u2013 even Corellon \u2013 were simply insane.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Having read enough holy works, I knew the former to be true.\u00a0 Seeing as I was in Corellon\u2019s own creation, the latter might be as well.\u00a0 Why would they bother?\u00a0 What use did gods, or the spirits of the dead for that matter, have for a re-enactment of the world they\u2019d already departed?\u00a0 I knew the gods had envied the world, wanted it for their own, which was why they fought the Primordials to save it, but why re-create a version of it here in the Astral Sea?\u00a0 Surely not just for the creature comforts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This deserved more thought.\u00a0 I filed it away for reference, and re-tuned my priorities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In particular, the one about finding my friends.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The morning was grey with mist out on the water, the harbor steeped in a blanket of translucent fog.\u00a0 Ships of all sorts were docked, their masts rocking gently in time with the waves of the sea.\u00a0 People were wandering … Continue reading