I don't proofread my stories once I type 'em.  If you find any mistakes that are just bugging the heck out of ya or you can't understand, just e-mail me of the problem and which subtitle it's under, and I'll fix it. Thanks

It is highly recommended that you start reading where I first started keeping logs, with the Tournament (we had both Palladium and Heroes guys in that one, so don't get confused :))  And after reading that just follow the Palladium link.  If you just want to get the gist of what's going on read our last adventure Avaxa's Gate which leads right up to this adventure.  I will often make reference to past adventures, and assume you know stuff from those adventures (In other words, you might get really confused, if you don't know what happened before this happened :)

(What happened to that last adventure?  It's moved because of load up time, you can see it here)

The Necrolite

State of the Group

One group fatality in the last adventure.  We bid good bye to Rand and all that he has done for us.  On a brighter note, we welcome K'traal along with us as he's stuck in our dimension.  Some of the personality things have been working out.  Sir Garland and Rashidi are on speaking terms or so it seems.  Often time Sir Garland has stayed up late at night trying to convince Rashidi to give up necromancy, he might be doing the trick too, because Sir Garland's not dead yet so Rashidi must at least be listening.  Sir Garland has also talked with Drog about his worship of the Old Ones.. Specifically Xy.  Drog has never worshipped him openly in front of us and keeps those matters to himself.  Coren has been really quiet, and doesn't talk to often to anybody except for Sir Garland.  She might meagerly ask the hulking giant that Drog is to chop some wood but that would be the extent of it.  She stays away from Rashidi however, and often the group will wake up in some town to not remember where the hell they last saw Coren only to find her talking with another priest in the church or sleeping at another inn.

Dreams...

Sir Garland was sitting there backed into a corner of a hut, then he heard the Dark Lord's voice... Die... Sir Garland went to snatch his sword but found it wasn't there.  Die... You've judged to many... Now it is time for you to be judged.. Die....

Sir Garland woke up in a cold sweat, and saw Rashidi sitting his normal watch.  He decided to stay up a little and just look at the stars.  Then he heard it.  A crashing of trees in the distance.  Rashidi took notice, and not too long after all were woken up with weapons drawn.  The crashing came closer and closer.. until out stepped a Baal-Rog from the forest with a huge sword at his side.

In a low guttural voice he said "Sir Garland, it is Utu's wish that you be destroyed.  The weapon you carry (deathkiss) has judged too many souls and this must be put to a stop.  However Rashidi here will show his devotion to Utu be carrying out the execution, for it seems he has been mislead as of late.  Go on Rashidi, show Sir Garland his fate, or I will have to kill you all. Do it"

Rashidi looked around, a war seemed to be erupting within his head as to which side to take.  Then his gaze settled on Sir Garland.  Sir Garland stood proud, knowing he had done all he could for him... now it would be his choice.

Rashidi took a step towards Sir Garland and started mumbling the mystic words.  Fire erupting in his eyes growing larger and larger... Rashidi snapped around and engulfed the Baal-Rog with a ten foot wheel of fire.  The Baal-Rog pulled his sword out in fury and and sliced Rashidi across his chest.  Then Drog went running up to the Baal-Rog and with all his might sliced inward against the Baal-Rog's stomach and cleaved him in two.

Everybody looked from Rashidi to Drog.  His adrenaline pumping and blood spattered against his face.  Drog simply stood there, he had become more then just a Merc. he had become a full blown Warrior.  He went and sat down after calming down a bit and cleaned his axes of all the blood.

Rashidi then took off his Dragon helm and dragon claw... he was finished with necromancy for good.

For the next few days the characters worked there way back below the Algerian Sea, and into the town again, where they purchased replacements and new toys from what got trashed in the last adventure.

Run in with the mysterious "Old Man"

(Next Update) They had decided to wait a month in the town while Drog had his armour specially crafted with the efforts of the blacksmith and alchemist.  About the 2nd week in town, Sir Garland was just strolling on down to the market from the "Duck Inn" in which he'd been staying at and an old man approached him.

The man wore a robe of grey, and he must have been in his 50's by now.  His streaming white hair, wrinkled face, and short meek body gave him the look of a beggar, but his dark blue eyes told you more.  Behind those eyes was an intelligent man and the mind of a schemer, or so Garland thought.

The old man asked Sir Garland if he would be kind enough to help him retrieve a crystal he'd had stolen.  It was a family heirloom, and it was very special to him.  Sir Garland didn't like the mans story but he decided he'd give it a shot a long with some help from the others.

He agreed to meet the old man at the man's house in about an hour and Sir Garland went about the city trying to find the others.  He eventually found everyone and told them how he offered to help the man.  The small group then ventured to the man's house.

The arrived and knocked on the door.... and knocked again... and again... until about 10 minutes later he answered the door.  When they asked him what he was doing he simply replied that he was busy.  The house as they walked in was nothing more then 2 rooms.  The old man described the crystal in full now.  It was pink, about the size of a soccer ball, and contained some small amount of mystical power.

The group had a little walk through the house and found that there was only one entrance and no windows in the house.  The old man said he could "sense" the crystal's presence about 2 miles east.  Only he didn't want to get it because he feared there might be trouble out there.

Sir Garland had heard enough and was ready to get moving, so he left to go get Tory (his horse) from the stables and the others left to go wait on the edge of the city.

"Come to claim your horse eh?" the stablemen asked.  Sir Garland gave a nod.

"You and everybody else, I tell ya, everybody's so excited because they seem to have there own secret little quests to off on."

Sir Garland gave the man a smirk and left.  On the way out he only noticed a few stalls with horses in them.

He saw the others and rode Troy on up to them.  After conferring with each other, they all decided it best to leave Drog, K'traal, and Coren back here to keep an eye on the old man cus he was up to something.

Rashidi and Sir Garland rode Tory out East and around 2 miles they came up to a small knee high grass field where Tory could finally run around a little bit after going through so much forest.  The field was surrounded by forest, and they both decided to start looking around here for anything that might give them a clue.

"Throw down your weapons and money and you may leave, choose to fight and you Will Die!" shouted a voice from across the field.  They saw a short, buff, human standing there with a long sword in hand, Sir Garland and Rashidi hopped off Tory and SG drew his steel.

"I'd reconsider you fool, this whole field is completely surrounded, this is your Last warning, do you choose to die today or part with your mere possessions?"

"I'd rather die!" Came the words from Sir Garland's mouth just as Rashidi felt an arrow sink into his left arm.  The small man came running at SG, a gnome came onto the battlefield, and arrows started pouring from around the forest.  The melee began in it's fullest.  Words of magic poured through Rashidi's mouth, and Garland became a man possessed and swung Deathkiss through the air lightning fast.  Deathkiss quickly found it's mark on the small man leaving him unable to fight and the gnome was to come next.  A shower of sparks as Sir Garland and the gnome parried with each other each moving with ungodly quickness.  Sir Garland would falter now and then as arrow hit home through his plate mail, but he would not be denied the blood of the gnome on Deathkiss.  Deathkiss found the gnome off balance for one second and hit home sending the gnome toppling to his grassy grave.

Sir Garland went after the nearest archer and left him dead with in mere seconds.  The arrows stopped and the sounds of the woods returned as the archers stepped back into their safety.  Only the small man, was left agonizing in pain on the ground, he tried to run, but an arrow SG's longbow pierced the back of his knee sending him sprawling to the ground yet again.  Sir Garland for the first time looked over at Rashidi and saw him full of arrows, but still alive.  The man was dragged back over by Rashidi, and everybody started doing their best to take out the arrows from their bodies.

Sir Garland found out from the man that a wizard with the same description of the old man will often send out people in search of a crystal and that business has been real good lately.  Of course none of the others would surrender either, but they were moderately easy to cut down.  Now was the first time they had lost.  It was obvious that the human needed some major healing, so the 3 of them  started to hobble back on to the city.

Watch some old man's house, what a waste of precious time Drog thought to himself as he stepped out of the whore house called "The White House".  K'traal was supposed to be patrolling the city streets for any sign of trouble, and Drog was to be watching the old man's house in case something might explode and the whole world will be taken over by the underlord... heh.. yeah right.  Drog wandered on back to where he was to be stationed and found K'traal waiting there tapping his foot anxiously.

K'traal gave Drog a meaningful glare as Drog arrived and told him that he had talked with the old man in the city, and that he was going to show them something.  The two went to knock on the old man's door but there was no answer, so they pounded harder, and still no answer.

They cautiously opened up the door and K'traal called out for the old man but no answer came.  The two then made themselves at home and Drog started searching the whole house for any secret compartments only to come up empty handed.  They were leaving, and K'traal couldn't seem to get the damn door to the house back open!  Drog went into the back room (bedroom) and made a back door for the house with his axes, and they stepped outside.  They walked quietly up to the front door only to find a log holding the door shut.

Walking away from the house they heard a beating on the door coming from the inside.  They went and moved the log and found the old man standing behind the door, and he didn't look happy.  Drog, K'traal, and the old man started yelling at each other only to have that end when Drog was talking about just killing the old man.  The man stepped back in the house and promptly closed the door, and Drog and K'traal heard a series of locks being secured.  They walked off a second time...

Sir Garland, Rashidi, and the human stumbled into the city to meet K'traal and Drog.  K'traal started to heal the human as best as he could, Rashidi took Tory to the stables, and Garland headed for the Old Man's house with Drog in tow.  They knocked on his door and continuously knocked for the next ten minutes before the Old Man answered.  A look of fear crossed his face instantly at the sight of Drog, and he insisted that only Sir Garland come in.  Sir Garland and headed on in, ready to yell at the Old Man for what he had sent them into.

The Old Man stopped him before he could say much and told him that he had something he wanted to show Sir Garland.  He proceeded to move his bed and rip up the worn floor boards under it and head down a ladder into some caves.  Sir Garland followed.  The Old Man explained that he sent them on that little mission to see if they were willing to help out a person in need and had good hearts, and to see if they could were strong enough to survive some powerful thieves.  They passed that mission and now he was ready to show them something of true importance.

He explained that the tunnels they walked through were made by troglodytes, but they were hardly used anymore as far as he knew.  At last they arrived at a place in the cave and the Old Man placed his hand upon the cave wall, and a section of the wall slid open to reveal a book entitled, "The Necrolite".

Prophecies of Power and a Sickness

The Old Man explained that the book was written by an Elven prophet maybe 1,000 years - 1,000,000 years before this time.  It told about the bringing of the "Spirits of the Past" in "The place where hell boils over"... The Land of the Damned was the Old Man's best guess.  A man was to come to power, and to do that he needed a crystal, among other things ,to do so.  Sir Garland gave the man a questioning look and the Old Man went on to explain that the only reason he wants the crystal is to prevent this man from having this power, he knew the crystal wasn't 2 miles east, that was just part of the test.  The Old Man wasn't screwing around this time however, he was dead serious.

Sir Garland told the Old Man that they would think over it, and most likely help him and the whole of the Palladium world out once again.  He told the old man that he'd see him early tomorrow, but for now he needed to go.  He left assembled the group once again, this time a the church.  He told them of the Old Man and the book and how he told the Old Man that we'd do what we could.  After he was finished Coren quickly introduced Father Kevin to the whole group, and he told them they were welcome to stay at the church tonight in they needed a room.

Drog took off to have a bow made for himself, but Sir Garland stuck around for a little while and had Father Kevin tend to his arrow wounds.  After that, Father Kevin and Coren went back to studying the Ma'at (book).  The group wandered around for the rest of the evening and came back to the church, all save Rashidi that is as he was busy making a few extra gold.  K'traal and SG came in first and got and shared a church room, and Coren popped in to say good night to them, and then she went to bed in her own room.  Drog came a few minutes later and had to share Father Kevin's room with him, and they went to sleep.   The next morning everybody was up and eating a nice breakfast that Father Kevin had made, until K'traal noticed that Coren wasn't around so he went to go wake her up.

He knocked on the door a few times and didn't hear a reply so he opened the door and saw Coren laying on the bed.  She turned to him and her face pale, and she just didn't look good.  She insisted she was fine however, and excused K'traal from the room while she got ready.

Ten minutes later she wandered down to eat breakfast, looking like the walking dead.  She started to eat slowly and then covered her arm.  Sir Garland, meanwhile, was going crazy with worry and insisted that she tell him what was wrong, after a while of denying that she felt bad, she finally gave up, and showed them her blood stained arm, almost looking as if a knife had penetrated it in the last minute or so.  Father Kevin and everybody else tried to determine the problem without much success when they heard a knocking on the church door.

Father Kevin went over to answer it to find the Old Man standing outside.  He entered and was about to ask what happened when he saw Coren and everybody around her.  Sir Garland said that the Coren, a priestess, suddenly took ill last night and they... "What!, What did you say!" the Old Man yelled, "That's the the next step of the prophecy!"

Ash (a.k.a.) Sir Garland wrote up a brief snippet of time called Sir Garland's Repent, that takes place right about now in the story.  Great reading, check it out!

(Next Update - Many thanks goes to Ash for writing this up)

Why would that old fool lie to us?, Sir Garland thought to himself as he entered the stable to retrieve his horse. Not that it mattered now anyway, all that mattered was locating that crystal and saving Coren.

Garland walked across the dry, dirt floor to the husky stable owner, who was tending to an old work horse.

"I have come to retrieve my horse." he said quickly.

"Ah yes, leaving again so soon?" the owner said, turning to Sir Garland.

"Yes, I'm afraid I can't stay any longer."

"Oh" said the stable owner reaching for his purse of gold, "Then I probably owe you some money. I remember you paid in advance."

"Not necessary" Garland said raising his hand, "You have done a fine job of caring for Tory."

They thanked each other and Garland left with Tory. Drog was waiting outside, geared up and ready to go.

"The book?" Garland asked as he reached him. Drog patted his pack and Garland gave him a nod. The book was put into Drog's care, simply because Drog was the least likely to lose the book out of everyone embarking on the trek, and also because Garland trusted Drog more than the unpredictable Rashidi (even though Rashidi was very trusted by Garland since his abandonment of his dragon skull) and the foreign and untested K'traal.

Rashidi and K'traal graced them with their presence shortly after replenishing the group's dwindling supplies. Tory and the magic carpet were loaded up and soon the old man came to see them off.

"The crystal will be in the Land of the Damned", the old man reviewed, "and the book must never be lost, if it should fall into the wrong hands..."

"The book will not be lost while in Drog's possession." Garland said confidently, "and the next time we meet, I will be carrying your crystal."

The young warrior charged off into the forest and the others followed on the carpet.

Ventures through the Great Northern Wilderness

It was some days later when they finally reached civilization. A tiny wilderness town sitting on the fringes of nowhere land. K'traal spent much of his time with Sir Garland because of his unfamiliarity with the Wolfen tongue. This was a problem since most of the native population was Wolfen.

Later while resting in a small pub, drinking ale, Drog introduced Garland to a Wolfen warrior who provided them with a bit a of helpful information, including his knowledge of one more city between this one and the Land of the Damned, and of a tournament of sword fighters held once per year to be taking place in the next few days in that city.

The next day the warriors assembled and departed in search of the city the Wolfen spoke of. After a few days of travel the city was eventually located and and the group entered. It was a large city and the festivities were in full swing. Garland pondered and eventually decided that maybe he should enter the tournament and maybe he would gain some clues about their quest and maybe even win a prize or something. Garland talked the others into staying in the city until the tournament was over, so he could register and put some of his sword combat skills to use. The long and short of it was that Garland ended up finishing second out of thirty-two warriors in a three day tournament.

They received no helpful information. They received no prizes. They lost three days of precious travel time and Sir Garland was seriously wounded the final bout. He said very little to the others about it, he was so ashamed of his childish stupidity. He wasted three days while the life of one of his closest friends was on the line and he senselessly put his own life in jeopardy. Faithful K'traal healed him without question or complaint and Drog made many attempts to joke around with him, but he couldn't help but feel he let everyone down, especially his beloved Coren. K'traal could heal Garland's body, but could do little for his pride. They left town soon after the tournament was over. That was the last town until they would reach the Land of the Damned. Or so they thought...

(Next Update - Once again written by Ash)

Good Old Fashioned Goblin Fun

One night while Rashidi stood watch a band of goblins armed with darts and blow-guns ambushed the party. Everyone was soon awake and jumped into battle with whatever they found. Drog managed to cleave one in half with his mighty axe before one goblin announced that they all had been injected with poison from the darts. It would mean certain death within days if they did not receive an antidote. There would be no antidote if they did not cooperate.

They were escorted to a goblin village where the chieftain announced that they would receive an antidote after they retrieved a mystical horn from a cave. They grudgingly agreed and the goblins gave them quick directions to the cave. They set off to locate it but they had revenge on the mind more than anything.

The group found the cave and entered. They soon discovered that it was the home to a community of Kobolds. They tried to get into town but the Kobold guards had them in a hurry. Drog could have easily dispatched most of them alone but Sir Garland made sure that didn't happen, they did not deserve to die because they did nothing wrong. To kill them would to be as bad as those goblins. The guards took the warriors to the Kobold ruler after Drog finally decided to cooperate. The king said that he possessed the horn and eventually he traded it to Rashidi for a Hydra skull.

An infiltration of the Goblin city by Rashidi the next day gave knowledge of the fact that all the goblins carry antidotes to the dart poison on their person. A trade came to pass later between the group and the goblins. The goblins got their horn and the warriors got their antidote. But Garland and Drog decided rather quickly that they would not be manipulated without revenge.

******
"Grandpa, tell us about the goblins again."

"Huh? Again? Well ok, how about the first time we really went at it with them?"

"YEAH! Were you there grandpa?"

"Oh yeah, I was there alright."

"It all started about fifty years ago when a strange group of warriors form the south gave the chieftain a sample of the antidote to the goblin's poison darts, in exchange for the use of some of our warriors. Forty-one I think, counting Captain what's-his-name, oh I can't remember, he has been dead for so long. They wanted their magic horn back from the goblins, it was ours at one time but we bargained it to the same strangers for who knows what.

"We had to listen to a lot of talk from a human boy, he looked like one of those fancy academy types. Sir Garland it was, I've heard that name since then, but where? Oh well that doesn't really matter. He appeared at first glance to be nothing more than a dressed up boy but there was more to him. A look of defiance in his eyes, like he has seen beyond his years what this world really deals to a man, like he was somehow cheated out of something but he was planning on taking it back. The Captain and him got into a dispute over what would happen to the enemies women and children. The human looked like he was taken off guard when the Captain announced that they must die too, like was experienced in that area. But in the end the Captain agreed that they were here to capture the horn, and that they must strike quickly and withdraw swiftly as possible. Time would only permit them to carry out necessary kills.

A mysterious mage who had the look of ice was the first to attempt to retrieve the horn. A horrible screaming wall of spewing flame erupted in the center of the village, signaling his failed attempt. A lunatic of a Minotaur, known by his comrades as Drog "The Destroyer", lead ten of us into a charge from the north end of the village, others struck at various other strategic locations but none were so successful as us. I still wake up at night covered in sweat with the eyes of the mad Minotaur, as he lead us into battle, bore into my mind. Annihilating the first goblin sentries before they ever seen the huge axes of the insane man-beast slamming into their skulls, crushing them like red berries. Foam dripped from the corners of his mouth as he screamed a horrible battle cry while penetrating deeper through the goblin village. I remember that well because it reminded me of a horrible rabid wolf hound I had seen when I was a boy. Eventually the goblins rallied and halted our advance; well sort of. The insane bull warrior seemingly forgot about us and was tearing down everything alive that had the misfortune of crossing his path. Soon we were completely cut off from him and he was surrounded. I felt so much pity. So much pity for the goblins who were foolish enough to believe they finally had the monster. Like trying to burn fire, they tried to destroy the destroyer and it cost them their lives. Limp goblins and unrecognizable bloody masses were cast left and right before he disappeared from us completely. The next time I seen him was after we merged with the captain's unit and an elf's unit. Silhouetted in the bright flaming wall I seen a Wolfen about to use the mystical horn. We tried to stop him but we couldn't get there. The mighty Drog did however and gored the Wolfen through the back with his right horn before he knew what hit him. Drog grabbed the relic and we all ran to make our escape. The gathering goblins were in hot pursuit but when we reached the west end of the village, Garland's unit rushed out to cover our escape and they fought well. We were home free but while we were running the Minotaur yelled an order for us to stop. The beast looked me in the eye for just a split second. I could tell that his thirst for blood had not yet been quenched. He rallied all of the units together to go back and charge the goblins. No one dared argue with him, we decide to take our chances with the goblins warriors. We all ran back to join Sir Garland and his unit who were falling back. We fell the initial goblins but more rallied. They were intercepted by another flaming wall, most likely that mage's doing, which allowed us to escape once and for all.

Eighteen of us survived all together out of forty-five. When we got back to the cave Sir Garland looked rather annoyed with Drog, but when they locked hands, it was overwhelmingly apparent how close the two men were. One last glance at the giant Destroyer allowed me to catch a glimpse of a smile behind that mask of goblin blood, dripping onto the soft soil under our feet.

******
After the battle the warriors said their good-byes to the Kobolds and continued on their trek. One night while Rashidi stood watch Sir Garland had a dream.  He saw a picture of Coren restlessly rolling in her bed sick with fever.  Her voice then spoke these words to him:

"Garland, the one of countless names has granted me a short time in which I may speak to you. A week after you left, the old man came back one more time to the church in hopes that you may have returned. He needed to tell you what he had just found out, according to him, “The Dragon Counsel has been watching the prophecy evolve as it should, only a few weeks back, before you left, one of the counsel members stopped showing up, the member’s name was Nectron. Nectron was disliked by all the members and they now fear that he has gone to shift the prophecy to side of the enemy”, he bids you be careful and good luck.

"The one of countless names has also granted me knowledge that I may recover.  In her words, “The birth of a rose shall be inscribed in a single word on the cup that brings on life. The cup was not long ago split in two, Darkness grabbed hold of one piece while a Queen made sure the Cross retrieved the other. Join both pieces as one and the evil magic will break from me as the contents of the cup the pour over the spirit sword, break either piece, and the magic from the cup will be lost eternally.

"Garland, I know not of this cup that is spoken of, or of anything else that is spoken of. If you can’t retrieve it, I’ll know that you’ve done all you could, but please don’t put my life in front of the thousands that may die should the enemy win, they must be saved first. Please be careful.

"Most importantly, I feared I may die without being able to tell you something that I need you to know....that from the first time I laid eyes on you, you’ve been in my heart and my dreams...Sir Garland, I want to tell something I should have a long time ago, I love you."

(Next Update - I'm back at writing now)

The group traveled on through the Great Northern Wilderness for a good two weeks.  They'd been able to catch some of their food, but relied on rations to finish it off.  The mountains came into view as the group made excellent time having Sir Garland ride his horse and Drog, Rashidi, and K'trall ride on the flying carpet.  At last they found their first sign of civilization as they came upon a small town of roughly 200 people.

Sir Garland rode his horse into town and noticed that it was populated entirely by humans.  The others landed the carpet outside of town and started to walk in.  A shout came from within the town as a human stared at Drog in fear.

Soldier's and Mercs. poured out of buildings and shouted at the Demon bull to go away.  Drog pulled his two battle axes all ready to jump into battle again, when Sir Garland's voice carried through the crowd that Drog is a Minotaur and his friend.  Drog put his weapons back, and the crowd settled down a little.  Drog was warned by a few shouts in the crowd that if he stepped out of line, that was the last step he'd take.

Sir Garland and Drog went into a bar for something to drink.  The bartender gave them a dirty look as he served them their drinks.  Come time to pay, prices were suddenly inflated by as much as 500% and Drog almost lost it, but Sir Garland kept him in check.

Drog made an small remark as to the bartender being a jackass, and half the bar suddenly drew their swords.  They were just waiting for Drog to make one more false move.  SG and Drog made a break for the door and the another call for guards sounded, also bringing Rashidi and K'traal to the bar door.

There all 4 stood in small circle surrounded by guards of the city.  Rashidi whipped up a Screaming Wall of Flame in the main street while Sir Garland leapt onto his horse and K'traal rolled out the Flying carpet and they got away in the confusion.

They traveled down the main road for another couple of miles and at they found a large city.  Kobolds, gnomes, and humans made up the basis of the population here.  The group was greeted with a mixed reception.  They started looking about the city, and bought whatever they thought they needed.

Sir Garland and Drog went into another bar and the prices had dropped from the last bar a bit.  The bartender was a Kobold who looked like he's seen it all.

"So, what would you know about guides", Garland asked as he took a sip of his Ale.

"Guide, where might you be intending to go?", the bartender asked already knowing.

"We're headed for the Land of the Damned".

"Well, all I can say is I don't recommend going their, but if you insist, you will probably be able to find a willing guide from the Mountain Guard.  You know," the barkeeper continued on, "there's just to many of you folks all to eager to meet your death, you do realize that nobody comes out.  Why just this last week we had a nobleman want to go in to the Land of the Damned for some good sport.  He hasn't been heard from since.  Probably died like everyone else."

"We don't have a choice in the matter" Garland calmly retorted, "and we'll be different from the rest, you'll see."

Garland and Drog paid for their drinks and bid the Kobold fair well.  They found K'traal and Rashidi around and they all went to sleep that night at a local inn.

(Next Update- by Grelheim, a Wolfen)

I was waiting for this guy to get done buying his stuff at the market, you know, so I could pay for my stuff, and then he and the merchant started talking about the Land of the Damned.  I guess he's going to go there with a few of his friends. I mentioned I'd been there once, can't help but to brag a little.  Ah well, send one more person off to be slaughtered....

I paid for my stuff and was walking from the merchant when the guy found me and stopped me.

"So, I hear you've been to the Land of the Damned?", the man asked.

"Yeah, I went there a long time ago with an army of Wolfen soldiers, we lost half of our men and we didn't even get through the forest, but... why do you want to know?".

"My name is Sir Garland, me and my friends, well we'll be going to the Land of the Damned soon, and well I was hoping you'd guide us."

"How much you pay?" I asked expecting the worst.

"Umm..will 5000 gps. do?" He said.

A pretty good haul, but do I want to risk my neck for these guys...

"5000, and I want a share of whatever treasures you guys might find."

"Deal! Meet us at the Drunken Devil (a bar) in an hour and we'll leave." he said as he left.

I went back to the inn and grabbed old army armour, my 2 daggers, and my falchion  Then I got some extra food, and headed on down to the bar.

In the bar you wouldn't believe what I saw.  There was a minotaur about with two wicked looking axes, an elf, and two humans.  They handed me my 5000 gps., but of course I'll wait til later on to count it and make sure it's real.

"So you guys taking the tunnels or the mountains?" I asked.  You see you can either take the Trog tunnels that go underneath the mountains or you can take the gnome guarded pass.  They all stared at each other for a few minutes, and then finally decided on the mountains.

We started off.  For a bunch of comrades, they really don't talk all that much.  So I just kind of went off into the lead and let the daydreams settle in as we walked toward Hell's Gateway, it's the pass that runs through the mountains.  K'trall, the elf, was riding a magic carpet that held alot of the supplies.  Well, day slipped into night, and we stopped a ways before the pass.  They decided they wanted a double watch, which I agree with considering where we're going.  We are to all take our turns on watch with Rashidi.  I guess that Rashidi guy doesn't need sleep, nobody else in the group seems to think it's weird so I let it slide.

Hell's Gateway

The next morning we entered in Hell's gateway, and traveled most of the day until we got to the gnome guard that lies with in the pass.  The town is walled in on all four sides, however if memory serves me correct the walls were the strongest on the other side.  The gnomes here were pretty nice the last time I came through, but who knows what will happen.

We entered into the town and we all found an inn for the night and hit a bar or two.  At the bar I noticed Sir Garland talking to the bartender about the "Destroyer's".  I'd heard their story a few times, but around here they talk as though the "Destroyer's" are kings.  The Destroyer's are a group that's led by Melchiem "The Destroyer", a troll.  His little underlings consist of 4 of the deadliest Kobolds this side of the mountains.  They've been said to go into the Land of the Damned on missions for people, and they always survive, and normally get what they were after too.  It sounds as though they went into the Land of the Damned once again because something was up with some raids on the gnome town.  Well, I was getting tired so I headed to bed.

The next morning I was woken up by screams from outside.  I looked out of my window just in time to see 4 or 5 charging orcs outside the walls get crushed by the cliff rock defenses.  Kind of weird that only 4 or so orcs would charge an entire city, but I guess that's what happens when the average dog is more intelligent the ya.

I went outside to see that the my employers saw the same thing, and were now watching as the gnomes pushed the rock back up the cliff.  I went over and told them we should quick grab some breakfast and be on our way.

After breakfast we set out to get through the pass, but were stopped by the guards at the gateway.  Apparently we had sign our names on a sheet of paper to go through the gate.  Hmmm, don't remember doing that last time I was through.  Ah well.

We traveled on til night came and we struck camp, still in the pass. I took my shift that night with no occurances.

Devil's Dungeon

The next morning we ate a few rations and traveled onward, until about mid-day we finally reached the end of the Gateway.  Facing us was the Devil's Dungeon, or so it was called by the survivor's from my regiment.  Actually it's the forest that runs along the mountains both ways for as far as the eyes can see.

Garland decided that he wanted to go to the mountains way off in the distance so we started walking into the forest to get to them.  We walked for quite a ways until I saw a dead body up ahead.  I signaled my employers to check it out, and Garland determined that the man was a prince.  Only he was here all alone.  We split up into to groups to go searching around the area.  Me, Garland, and Rashidi, took the Northern route and the others went the other way.  We were walking and Garland pointed out a body up ahead.  We went up to take a good look at him, and found 3 more bodies with him.  Mostly likely the princes servants Garland guessed.

Then I heard it, the faintest rustling in the bushes, apparently they heard it too and we went over to inspect it.  Then I heard it from behind us.  Before I knew it a shadow was cast over us and there flew the ugliest naked women devil with wing things I'd ever seen.  Some popped up from the bushes, and I started running like hell.  Not to far behind me and I could hear Rashidi and Garland huffy and puffy away.  They shouted out for Drog as they ran.  We headed into a really thickly wooded area so the winged women devils would have a hard time following, and we ran into Drog and K'traal as they were running towards us.  Luckily the devil gave up chase when we some nice and thick growth.

After waiting a while we went onward, me in the lead of course.  We traveled on through the rest of the day with no problems, and finally struck camp for the night in a densely wooded area.

(Next Update)  We traveled onward the next day through the forest and into a small field.  We took a small break before going over the field and then started moving across it as fast as possible to where the forest started again.

About half way across we saw these ugly dinosaur-horse things and we tried to make it across without getting there attention.  We really picked up the pace.

Too Late! One looked over and all 3 of the monsters started charging us.  Sir Garland and the rest made quick work of them however with their magic weapons and such.

We went farther on, but eventually struck camp on the forests edge.  We all went to sleep and started the round of shifts. Ready for some nice peaceful sleep.

"Watch out" Drog shouted.

"I woke up as a huge Devil thing was hovering over our camp, and the two people who were on watch duty were off a ways.  The Devil something about this being Garland's second warning.  All I know was that I left my sword with the rest of the junk, so I ran over to get it.  I turned back just in time to see Sir Garland's rune weapon rip the monster in half with a single stroke.  Not too much later, I heard the scream of a women in pain, no doubt from Drog's axes.  The scream was from a female monster with snakes for hair.  We dragged the two bodies of into a ditch and went back to sleep.

The next morning I woke up, and maybe I'm just getting paranoid or something, but the one they call Rashidi has been staring at me a lot lately.  It's kind of freaky.  I hope he knows there's some services I only offer to Wolfen Girls.  Otherwise he's one sick bastard hehe...  He certainly acts like he doesn't like me though, like I did something to him in another life or something.  Who knows...

We traveled onward that day until we stumbled upon a single hut, in the middle of the forest.  Just sitting there.  They wanted to check it out, so I figured I could use the break.  K'traal knocked on the door and an old human man answered the door, and welcomed us all in.

"Hello my good friends, the light has led you to my door, please come in"

"Who are you, and why are you here?" Sir Garland asked.

"I'm here for the reason of helping well moraled people like yourself.  You see, evil beings cannot see this hut or it's close surroundings, only beings of good can see it, and that will probably answer a lot of questions.  Won't you come in for a while.  Being here, you can guess that I don't get much company"

We all went in.  And the Sir Garland asked the man if he knew anything about a large pink crystal.

"A pink crystal, hmmm, I believe I do, let me check my books." the man pushed aside the couch and there was a pile of books beneath it.  He picked up one and started to search.  "Ah yes, here it is!, The Caster's Crystal, it's a pink or red crystal about 1 foot in size correct?"

"Yeah, I think so, does it say where it is?" Garland asked.

"It gives a clue here, It lies within Oak's lair, not much, but something to go on." The old man said as Rashidi scribbled down the phrase.

"Great, thank you, would you also happen to know anything about a cup that has a single word describing the birth of a rose on the side of it?" Garland asked.

"How bout I look through my books, and you guys make some supper."

They agreed and Sir Garland, a decent cook from his days back in the army, started to make some supper with the help of the others.

Around the finish of dinner, the old man pronounced he'd found what they asked about.

"This cup that you search for has the word Rosebud inscribed on it.  And it says here that it's to be used in conjunction with the magic sword Spirit Dancer.  It also give's a story about the sword Spirit Dancer"  (The story's kind of big so follow the link to read the story about The Magic Sword Spirit Dancer!)

After hearing the story about Spirit Dancer it was starting to get late so the old man offered to let the group sleep in the hut tonight if they wished.  Sir Garland, not wanting to freeload, told the man they'd fix up his hut a little in the morning.  They went to bed.

The next morning, they all fixed up the hut a bit and were about to take off when they asked the old man if he'd like to come with them.  He told them he'd have to think it over......

(Next Update)

Taken from the Highcounsel Exploits as it now applies here... The group has just arrived at I.S.C for the first time and Landrin is searching out through the castle...

Landrin walked through the dusty halls and came upon the courtyard.  The round courtyard had nothing but vines and giant weeds now, but he envisioned the beauty that would be their come spring and a little work.  He gazed up at two 2-story tall doors, that were closed at the time.  He went over and slowly opened one, and it revealed the main hall.  The stone was still in tact but the everything else was trashed around the place.  Then he saw it, up on the thrown.

Landrin walked up there to find a note and a mug with it's handle broken off sitting on the thrown.  The note was illegible to him so he went around trying to find somebody who could read it.  After a few people trying with little luck, Landrin found Lancelot working on a hut outside the castle and handed him the note.

Lancelot read out load: "Get this cup to the Land of the Damned by 3 weeks after the 10 month.  Very Important!  Do Not break it!  -Signed Rachel"

"Dammit that's only 3 weeks from now, where's the cup?"

Landrin held up the cup for Lancelot to see.

"Would you be willing to sail to the Land of the Damned with Sheila and her crew to deliver this, I know you won't make it 3 weeks, but late is better then never"  Lancelot said.

"I will Lancelot, I feel my life was meant for the mainland anyway, now that is."  Landrin replied.

Landrin left for the Land of the Damned upon the Lady Rose with Capt. Sheila Nazare and her crew.

Knock, knock.  Landrin crawled out of his bed and headed to get a match for the lantern... Knock, knock! the sound came again from the door in the middle of the night.  He grabbed his sword, and slowly opened the door to find a man wearing all black, only showing his face, and a dark black hair and beard.

"Good evening, you have the cup I search for, it could help save many lives.  Please turn it over so that I may see to it's proper usage" the cloaked one said.

"Who are you and how did you get on this ship?  We've been to sail a week already and I've not seen you yet."

"My name is not important, just give me the cup!  Time passes and so do lives, hurry now."

"The cup goes nowhere with out me, and I plan to stay on the ship."

"Very well then," the man said, "I will be back for you Landrin, I will be back".

With that he took of down the hall and went out of Landrin's sight.  Landrin closed the door and locked and tested the lock a few times, crawled into bed, and blew out the lantern.

The next day, Landrin said nothing of this to anybody, and went about his normal activities, and of course practiced his juggling and tumbling skills.  Nightfall came, and Landrin went to his cabin with-in the Lady Rose, and went to sleep.

Knock, knock.  Landrin got to his feet once again, and lit the lantern and drew his sword.

"Who is it?" he demanded while the door was still closed and locked.

"I am Allanon, I search for the cup that you have in your possession, may I talk about to you?" a distinctly different voice said.

Landrin went and unlocked the door.  A man, stood in front of him in a cloak, showing once again only his face.  The hair was blond and he had no facial hair.

"Hello Landrin, can you show me the cup?"

"How did you get on this ship, and why do you want this cup that you speak of?" Landrin asked right back.

"I am a dragon, and I represent the Dragon Counsel.  I want this cup so that I may help end the darkness that reigns with-in the Land of the Damned."

"Are you the same that came to me last night?" Landrin asked cautiously.

"What do you mean?! You were visited last night?  Dammit, Nectron is one step ahead of me.  Come now, we must hurry, let me at least see the cup so that I may confirm that it's the correct one."

Landrin reached into his bag and pulled out the cup and showed it to Allanon.  Etched in it was the word "Rosebud".

"That's the one, now will you give it too me?" Allanon asked.

"I will not leave the cup, however I am traveling towards the same place you are so you may stay on the boat with me."

"To travel by boat will take forever and that's time we don't have, if you are so sure about you're coming, then you shall ride upon my back and we will fly there."

Landrin, knowing his time constraints, decided to go along with the risky affair.  He and the dragon Allanon flew off into the night to the Land of the Damned.

(Next Update)  The old man from the hut declined the offer of to join the Heroe's in their quest, but offered them some books in his stead.  To Rashidi he gave a Book on Wizardry, a great help to an aspirering wizard.  To Sir Garland, K'traal, and Drog he gave a book on Elven Bows and Arrows which details how to make different arrow heads to be more effective, what kind of wood is best to use, and so forth.

They thanked the old man, other wise known as Lawrence Karthard, and were about to head on their way when K'traal remembered something...

"Hey guys, I think I know where we have to go.  Remember in the book that Lawrence had, it said the crystal lies within Oak's lair, and in the story about Spirit Dancer, that sword, it mentioned the name of the man that made the sword, Gwan Oaks!  We're not looking for a stand of trees, we're looking for Oak's Blacksmith.  If I remember correctly it said he lived by the Northern Mountains or something."

They agreed with K'traal, and started to head back to the Northern Mountains...

Walking....

They walked for the rest of that day and stopped for the night to sleep.  The next day they went out again and were walking when suddenly a tree branch swung down and nearly nailed K'traal, who was upon the carpet.  They went over to take a look, and Drog started getting a vine growing up his leg.  Before they knew it, the trees around them started swinging at them.

Hack, Parry, Slash, Drog went at the nearest tree with a vengeance, and took out his mighty battle axes and drove them into the tree.  He could faintly hear Sir Garland being caught unexpectantly by a tree branch hitting him across the chest.  Twack! Drog drove his axes into the tree again while the vine wound up his leg, and more came from above him.  He felt as though he flew like the winds themselves, splitting the vines in 'tween with a single chop only to twirl around and drive his axes into the trunk of the giant oak again and again.  One more hit and the tree toppled over dead.  Landing not 10 ft. from the mighty Drog was a giant green spider.  He went charging at the spider and drove home his two axes spreading green spider inerds about the forest floor.  He looked back to see his comrades staring at him as the trees and vines once again returned to their ways in the wind.

After a short victory congratulations, the party moved on through the forest until supper time.  Sir Garland, K'traal, and Drog went out to go find some berries to eat to save the rations, Grelheim went in search of water, and Rashidi sit motionless on the ground in the camp meditating.

Inner peace with one self, no worries, no thoughts, just a void to lose yourself in.  Inner peace with one self.... Strange feeling, ah crap!...

Rashidi woke up just as a snake head plunged to his neck and sank it's fang's into it.

"Rashidi", the same feminine voice sounded, that he remembered so clearly from a few nights ago, "Thought you killed me, well you missed your chance, I won't miss mine."

Rashidi took up his sword by his side and drove it over his head with both arms just nearly missing the demon.  Sssss... A snake head went flying through the air biting his wrists.  He tried again, his time striking home with the sword into the demon somewhere, but it wasn't enough as another snake sank it's fangs into his arm.  Snakes chewed up on Rashidi arms making them shine a bright red before he made a run for the forest.  He turned and looked back to see the Demon getting on the magic carpet that had all the supplies on it.

A fireball flew from his arms just nearly missing the demon.  And yet another, but this one found home, but unfortunately only singed the demon.  The female demon raised the carpet into the air and started flying off into the forest.

A wolfen scream rang through the air and Drog just nearly caught it.  He pulled Sir Garland and K'traal from the berry bushes, and dragged them along with him as he started to charge to where he thought he heard the Wolfen scream.  They ran through the forest and suddenly a carpet with the female demon went soaring over their heads.  Drog and K'traal stopped and pulled their longbows to try and nail the demon off the carpet while Sir Garland ran on.

Shoot, reload, shoot, reload....  Drog and K'traal released arrows with fiery upon the demon, only to have their arrows nearly miss her, between the two, K'traal landed one arrow, and by then she was past them.  They started crashing through the woods after her.

Sir Garland reached the wolfen, and he was lying unconscious on the forest floor, with a huge bump on his head.  After scouting the area for enemies, Sir Garland started dragging Grelheim back to camp.  About midway, Grelheim woke up and asked Sir Garland who he was.  Sir Garland figured on amnesia, and told the wolfen all about why he was out in the Land of the Damned with them, hoping to draw back the memory, but unfortunately to no avail.  The two slowly walked toward the camp.

Rashidi crashed through the woods after the carpet, and after a while he finally ran into Drog, who was waiting for K'traal to return from his chasing the carpet.  Rashidi gave Drog a knowing look, and the two slowly started back to camp in defeat, they'd lost their supplies...

Sir Garland reached the camp with Grelheim to find all the supplies and Rashidi gone.  A few seconds later Drog and Rashidi came into camp.

"Where is K'traal and the supplies?"  Garland questioned, already fearing the answer.

Rashidi started to explain, but as soon as Garland found out the basics, he went running after K'traal, leaving Rashidi and Drog to deal with Grelheim.

Garland ran as fast as he could in his heavy plate armour.  His body sweated out the heat that was racing through his body, until he finally saw K'traal up ahead.  He let out a sigh of relief, and went and joined K'traal.  K'traal explained that he chased after the carpet for quite a time, but it was gaining to much on him, so he decided to return.

Sir Garland and K'traal slowly walked back to camp to share berries with the others for supper.

Another Day, Another....

(Next Update)  After a little debate, the 5 adventurers decided to go after the carpet and their supplies.  The next morning.  They all went to sleep and slept through the night without interruption.

The next day the group traveled forth in direction in which the Demon flew off in.  They travels for a good long time, going through forest and plains alike until off in the center of the plains they saw their first sign of civilization.

A walled in town lay ahead of them which Rashidi determined had a number of goblins who were lead by ogres.  The group decided to circle the town to avoid any trouble.  However, when circling the town they spotted a hunting party out on the fields consisting of 4 goblins and an ogre.  They also decided to give the hunting party lee-way as to not start any troubles.  The finally circled the town and were back on track when Sir Garland spotted a small Unicorn up ahead.  They went up to investigate, and saw the unicorn hovering over it's dead hornless mother.  After reassuring the Unicorn telepathically, they went up and inspected the area.  In the mother they found stab wounds.  The baby girl Unicorn was offered some food.

"Those Bastards!" Garland said under his breath, "I'm going to that town to find the guys who did this to this unicorn!"

Garland, started off towards the town.  Rashidi and Drog quickly caught in tow and the 3 of them headed out well K'traal sat around finding berries with Grelheim who has amnesia, and the unicorn who's name K'traal found out to be Sarah.

"Who goes there, leave now!" shouted a goblin as the 3 approached.

"We have simply come to buy some wares and we'll be off." Garland said calmly.

"Let them in" a voice from behind the city wall bellowed, and the gate swung open.

The 3 entered town, immediately being trailed by 7 armed goblins.  Garland decided the first stop would be the tavern for a drink.

"What'll it be?" the bartender grunted as the 3 sat down at the bar.

"Ale for me and my friends." Garland said and 3 ale's were slid onto the table.

Drog gulped his down and then asked the bartender for the strongest thing he has.  The bartender gave Drog a questioning look, and then with a smirk, reached down under the bar and produced a pottery made pitcher.  Out of the pitcher he poured two drops of black liquid, and then recorked the pitcher and put in under the bar again.  The drink had water added added to it as it steamed a bit, and then the bartender slid it down to Drog.

Drog gulped the liquid and started to sweat and hallucinate a bit, but after a few seconds the ordeal was over.  The bartender gave a small insult to Drog as Drog asked for another.  The pitcher was produced again.  And then the bartender broke the cardinal sin of serving Drog, never question his ability to hold his liquor.

The pitcher went flying into the wall behind the bartender and the whole bar was drawing their swords.  Garland and Rashidi made for the exit, as did Drog, but then Garland thought better of it, and before things got out of control, he apologized and offered to pay for the wasted liquor.

The whole bar stood with sword in hand, waiting for the bartender's answer.  A smirk crossed the bartender's face, and a total of 400 gps. was charged for the pitcher plus he demanded that they clean up the mess.

The deed was done and Sir Garland, getting on the bartender's good side, asked if he'd heard anything of a Unicorn's horn being brought into town lately.  He was directed to a table in the bar in which two ogres sat.

Garland went over to the table with Drog and Rashidi in trail and started talking to the ogres.  Some heated words were exchanged between the two, until finally Garland challenged the ogre to a duel.  Both Rashidi and Drog's jaw dropped at hearing this, but they remained silent.  The ogre excepted, and told him he'd be ready in 5 minutes on the street.

The crowd cheered like wild as the ogre showed up in his shiny chain mail, carrying his newly sharpened flamberge.  His tall menacing frame towered over that of Sir Garland.

"No quarter shall be given, let's go!" the ogre screamed as he lunged for Sir Garland.  Sir garland just nearly parried the blow.  Sir Garland whirled about and caught the ogre through the chain mail drawing the first blood.  The battle raged on, and the crowd cheered for the ogre.  Parrying and striking, Garland was using it all, until finally he caught the ogre off guard one more time send the ogre to the ground.

Sir Garland walked over and rested his sword on the ogre's neck.  The ogre opened eyes from the pain only to have the bulge in horror at the sight of Garland towering over him.  Garland offered the ogre quarter, which he eventually excepted, and then Garland walked out of town with Drog and Rashidi, leaving the ogre in shame in front of the whole town.

Once out of the town the 3 walked a ways, and finally discussion broke out about bad Garland whooped the ogre's rearend.  The three walked back to the camp to find the the other 3, and they all settled down for a little dinner from the berries on the bushes.

After eating the group set out once again, in search of their carpet.  The day ended, and they finally found a spot to settle down in to learn more about the Sarah (the baby girl unicorn) and what she knew.

City of Water

The night passed and the next day, they went forth once again.

They walked in silence most of the day, until they came upon a large ravine, that had trees sparsely populated with in it.  In the bottom of the ravine was a city that was covered with a few yards of water.  They went to check out the city, and discovered the water was roughly 6 ft high in the deepest areas.  Drog managed to find some very stale moldy meat, but that was about it for supplies as it looked like the denizens knew it was going to flood and had time to clear their stuff.  Garland hoped from roof top to roof top looking around and Rashidi checked in some buildings, the only thing of interest that he found was a statue of a Kobold within a main building, with the inscription. "The first permanent above ground Kobold settlement within the Land of the Damned."

(Next Update) After a while the group decided to head on to see what else they could find, they walked until nightfall.  And even then continued on a bit.  They were walking through some plains when they heard the all to familiar voice of the female demon of in the distance.

"Rashidi, Garland, look what I have brought for you" the high soft voice called out.

Suddenly six flaming skeletons "Fire Skeletons" started advancing towards the group.  The group readied for battle.  Right before the skeletons engaged they created a Fire whip with a flick of their wrists.

The battle ensued.  Rashidi mumbled spells under his breath, Drog, Sir Garland, and K'traal went to hacking at the skeleton's and Grelheim stayed with Sarah, being protected by the other four.  Flaming skeleton parts went flying to the ground as heads were separated from bodies, and ribs ripped to shreds.  The female demon joined in the melee and went face to face with Garland.  Garland, seeing his chance, took Deathkiss and rammed into into the heart of the Demon, and let Deathkiss suck the Demons soul.  This time the Demon wouldn't be getting up...  The skeletons were finished off, and the group decided to camp out here tonight...feeling just a little bit more secure, and proud of themselves.....

(Next Update)  The watch shifts switched on throughout the night until K'traal and Grelheim were on watch together...

"Shhh, did you hear something?"  K'traal whispered to Grelheim.

Grelheim's ears perked up a bit, and he took in the cool night air.  He could faintly hear the sound of someone talking.  Getting up off the rock he sat upon, he looked around the surrounding edge of the woods.  Then he realized it, the sound came from beneath him.

Grelheim nodded to the ground, and K'traal shook his head to concur Grelheim's idea.  K'traal wondered about a bit, and then bent his head down to the ground to listen to the conversation taking place beneath....

"Man, Chantos is gonna be crank'n to see this puppy!", a higher pitched male human voice said.

"Hey look! It's glowing now, maybe we can see these damnable Kobold tunnels better", another voice, a much lower male voice answers.

"Ah!" *clanking sound as sword hits the floor* "That suckers hot!" the first human screeched.

"Quit your whining ya dog, just move it over here so I can finish rigging this trap for that dumbass group of Mercs. that Chantos is expecting."

"Heh, those morons, I can't believe they just left all their supplies in the field like that.  I bet Rex is just dragging them into to the keep now."

"Ok, it's done, now lets go find this crystal thing and get out of here before we set off any of our traps.  Make sure to avoid our guards too, they give me the chills."

"I think this sword I found here's cooled down enough, let's go"

*Faint footsteps heard as the two men walk a ways away*

"Hey look, now it's glowing real bright, this is awesome!"

"Set it down ya dog, you remember what happened last time it got really

*Clanking Sound*

"Whew, just in time, hey look it's turning bright red now"

"Ah shit! Run!!!!"

The sleeping camp jumped awake from a huge explosion that jetizened a fireball a mile high into the air literally blowing off a rock into the sky and a small hole right above the explosion to the tunnel.

The weapons were all drawn with the blink of an eye, only for them to notice K'traal looking over the hole created in the ground from the explosion.

K'traal quickly related what happened to the group, and after waiting a little while for the earth to cool, the group jumped down into the hole to find themselves in a one way "man"-made tunnel.

The group started down the tunnels until Drog, who was in the lead, saw a faintly glowing sword imbeded into the stone walls.  Sir Garland reached out and yanked the sword out of the wall.  The blade started to glow brighter and brighter, and then Sir Garland threw it to the floor where it stayed at the same brightness.  Then he picked it up again and now it started turning yellowish, then orange, and then Sir Garland threw the sword down to the ground again.  Only this time the sword kept getting brighter and brighter, and started turning a red.  Drog took off down the tunnel back the way they came and was soon followed and passed up by the others.  The others leaped out of the hole just as they heard an explosion in the background.  Drog was caught midair and his back was singed by the flames leaving only one more war wound to his scared body.

After waiting awhile, the group started down the passageway again.  This time when they got to the sword, Rashidi decided he'd try touching it.  The sword once again started to glow brighter and brighter.  Rashidi through it to the floor and it stayed at the same brightness.  It was decided to leave the sword and walk on.

The group walked for quite a ways until they came to dead end.

After searching the area by the dead end, Drog found a trick lever that opened a secret passageway into a room.  After looking through the passage and determining that no one was in the room the adventurer's climbed through the doorway.  The room was that they saw didn't look to have been lived in for quite a few years.  The ceiling above the desk had caved in leaving the desk split in half.  The crumbling rock bed wasn't much of a site either.  While Rashidi and Drog searched the room for any traces of another passageway, Garland looked around the room a bit more and determined that the room would have been the King's quarters.

After an unsuccessful search, they decided check out what was on the other side of the wooden door.  As they neared the door however, they heard the faint clanking of swords, and the footsteps of someone outside the door.

It was decided to take whoever it was as hostage to try and get some answers from them.  The group got into position and the door was flung open, and they met up with the site of 4 completely assembled and functioning, bone only skeletons holding short swords.  The plans had suddenly changed and they quickly hacked the skeletons to tiny pieces.

Looking around and stepping over the shards of bone they found themselves looking down to long abandoned hallways.  Yet looking around, one could easily see that the dust was disturbed in the hallways.  Taking the left hallway first they headed into the first doorway they could find.  Inside was the makings of an ancient servants quarters.  Not to miss anything, Rashidi and Drog spent another 10 minutes searching for any compartments or doors that might have been hidden.  They came up with no luck, so it was decided to follow the other door out of the room.

Stepping through the door they were met with the site of 8' platform with a thrown atop it in front of them.  Garland and Drog climbing up the platform and found themselves within a Royal Hall.  Deep in the back of the Hall they heard the sound a flute start playing, upon closer inspection, it was the sound of skeleton playing the flute, and snake heads starting to poke out bags on the floor.  Rashidi and K'traal hopped up on the platform just in time to see Sir Garland pull back his longbow and launch an arrow through the flute, snapping in half.  The snakes went their own way, and the skeleton got up and charged the main platform.  Needless to say, it didn't get to far.

While Drog was making skeleton puree, Sir Garland was looking at the inscription on the thrown.  From that he learned that the Royal Family's name was Baronbach, and that it was indeed a Kobold community at one time, most likely a long, long time ago.  The group decided to leave through the main entrance double doors to the hall.

Upon creaking open the doors, the group saw something glowing at the end of the wide store-lined hall.  It looked as though skeletons walked around down there.  Rashidi went in invisible to investigate.

The skeletons walked all about him as he took a head count.  He also noticed that some of the skeletons were a little different then the others for they had flames inside their mouths.  He'd later learn that they are called "Shrapnels" because if you strike them in the head, the head explodes send shards of bone everywhere in the room.  In the middle of all of the skeletons was a murky glowing green pool with a statue of a Kobold warrior above it.  The Kobold held a real sword that seemingly produced water from itself and dripped into the pool.  Rashidi then returned to the group to report his findings.

It was decided to sneak up on the skeletons and take them by surprise if possible, but if they couldn't...oh well.  The group made it's way down the hall way past such stores as: The Smasher's Shack, The Guard's Grand ole' Bar, Trinket stores, and Jack's Butchery.  They were almost there when a rock fell from the ceiling, giving them away.

The skeletons all turned and charged to fight the intruders.  The group started smashing the undead heck out of them, especially Drog, who floats like a butterfly and stings like small Hydrogen Bomb.  The group laid waste to the skeletons, but not without taking their own nicks and scratches.

It appeared as though they were in the town square right now.  K'traal decided to go check out The Standard Sword, a blacksmith that he'd seen, Rashidi headed for Mac's Magic Emporium, and Drog and Garland checked out the statue.

K'traal looked into the blacksmith and found that half the place was cleared out of everything and the other half was caved in.  He started back towards the square.

Drog and Garland looked at the Statue and found a small inscription on it.  "This sword was funded for by the kingdom, and was created by Gwan Oaks."

They shared their info with K'traal just as Rashidi came running out the of the Emporium.

"Guys, I found it!"

They all headed into the Emporium except Grelheim and Sarah (the unicorn).  They found some stairs and headed down.

On the stairway a small simple sign read, "Gwan Oaks' Lair".

(Next Update) They traveled down the stairs to see a room filled with 100's of magic weapons and other do-dads all covered with an inch of dust.

Wrarrr, Wrarrrrrr, Wrarrrrr, a siren blared from in the middle of the room.

"What the fu.." was heard as the group stepped back from the entrance.

Yodelly, Yodelly, Yodelly, came from a mace with face drawn it, yodelling away.  Off in the background one could see two bow & arrows playing Dueling Banjos to add to the noise.

Two swords mounted on the wall start glowing, illuminating a sign carved into it.

"Shut up!!!!  Be quiet!! Stop the insanity, stop the music....." an axe could be heard yelling over the tunes being played and the siren blaring...

The sign on the wall read:

All you thieves and assassins alike, feel free to take any of thee weapons around you.  I don't mind, but you might.  Fair warning now, some of the weapons in here aren't so nice, to even move one might mean your death.  As for which door, choose the right one for it may be your last choice you ever make.

With that, doors on the walls started lighting up around room.  5 against the wall the group faced, 2 against the left wall, 2 against the right wall, and none against the back wall except the one they came through.

Rashidi went to go to one of the doors but accidentally stepped on dagger, and was zapped by it.  Drog went about looking at a door and found that they needed keys.  He searched around and eventually found the key on top of the doorway ledge in which they came through.

Garland suggested that maybe the sign meant literally, the right door.  So Drog took the key and with the protection of Rashidi's magic he inserted the key into the hole, and turned and the door clicked open.

The 4 men made their way through the doorway into a hallway in which drog searched for traps, and was lucky enough to find the ceiling was a multitude of smaller rocks being held up by smaller wooden boards.  The perfect trap.  Only he couldn't find what set it off.  The group traveled safely past the weakened area, deeper into the hallway, until they came upon the door.  On the door was another inscription written in Dwarven:

Only the brave shall pass.  Press the button to pass.

Drog located the button and pressed it.  Behind the group all of the rocks fell in, but they were safely in front of the cave in.  A door opened and they group pressed on.

Through the doorway appeared another hallway, with a round hole the size of 2 yrs. in diameter carved in the left side.  They decided to ignore the hole and walked on down the hallway where Drog (he's in front) saw another door.  They walked until Drog tripped over something.  He heard a large creaking sound, and then it sounded like something rolling.  Looking at what he tripped over was a taunt piece of rope.  The rolling sound came closer and looking back, they saw a huge boulder coming out of the hole in the wall.  They ran like heck for the wooden door, they whipped it open, and entered the room, just barely closing it to stop the rolling rock.

A grunt of exhaustion coming from Garland as he looked to see where they were in the midnight darkness.  Then two swords on the wall lit up again, showing another sign, it read:

You must be good to make it this far, either that or I forgot to take the secret passage back there.  One last thing, it's really easy to get the door open in this room, here I'll even give you a few keys.

Keys started pouring from the ceiling 15 ft. high ceiling. Filling the room at a rate of about a foot a minute.  Garland, started picking up keys and trying to shove them into the lock of the steel door, but then he noticed two things.  The keys were all exactly the same, and the keys wouldn't fit in past halfway into the lock.  Drog next tried to pick the lock, but as he did so he found out there was no locking mechanism, only 3 deadbolts that held the door shut.

Drog ran over to Rashidi, and the two of them hacked the wooden door to pieces and they slowly pushed the rock back up the hallway.  After 3 ft. of keys on the ground, Garland and K'traal took off after them, grabbing a few keys on the way.

They pushed the rock all the way up to the previous doorway and went into the hole where the rock came out of.  At the very end they found a small metal locked door that the key fit into.  They turned it and the door fell open and they went out into a hallway.

From one end of the hallway they could see the other door and hear the keys pounding into it, the other end of the hallway turned.  Before them was a sign that read:

Clearly I am no match for you, I'd best suggest you take what you came for and leave my home in piece.

They tracked down the dust laden hallway, and turned into a room to see one gigantic storage area of magical items.  Out of the storage area were two other doorways.  They looked around at all the weapons in pure imagination of what they could do with them.

Garland went off to the crystals section and found a crystal that fit the description of the Caster's Crystal, the crystal they searched for.  After all the drueling was done, they finally decided to leave the room in fear of what they might take.

They went through the left doorway from the room and found the personal quarters of Gwan Oaks, all dust laden and crumbling.  Drog searched the room for secret passages and found a doorway hidden in the northern wall.  The group traveled through the doorway, and went into the hallway, and walked and walked for a good halfhour and taking various turns until they came to dead end.  Drog found the doorway and they went through it.

To everyone's surprise they appeared back in the first room with the music still playing and the insanity levels raising.  They quickly made way for upstairs with their new found possession.  They left Mac's Magic Emporium....

Outside the Emporium K'traal stepped back with surprise as he looked upon Sarah's (the unicorn) dead body laying there, the horn already ripped out, and Grelheim ready to be hung, only a simple shove of a chair on which he stands would have him hang'n.   Also seen are 3 kobold's, a troll with a wicked looking Javelin, a wolfen that looked exactly like Grelheim and a syvan.

"Darksong!" Garland looked at the syvan with immediate recognition.  The syvan only smiled a malicious smile.

"Hello, my friends, my name is Melchiem, me and my friends here make up the infamous Destroyer's, maybe you've heard of us." the troll said with a sly cackle.  "We will make a trade, you give us the crystal, and we'll give the wolfen back."

Special- See a kick ass picture of Sir Garland and Drog in Battle!

(Next Update) Sir Garland got ready to get the crystal out to make the trade and then he looked back at his comrades.  The ice cold stare from Rashidi, and the bloodthirsty look on Drog's hardened face told him that they wouldn't be as willing to make the trade as he, they wanted blood.

Reluctantly, Sir Garland placed the crystal back, and words of Rashidi filled the air as he summoned the arcane magics to help them once again.  The chair under Grelheim was kicked out by 1 of the 3 Kobold warriors and battle ensued.

Melcheim launched the mighty Spiked Javelin at Drog and impaled him through the stomach, however Drog drove forward to meet his foe with a charge which sent Melchiem sprawling to the ground.  Rashidi, in a great act of irony, leapt to cut the ropes that held tightly to Grelhiem's life and Grelheim fell to the floor, gasping for air, saved by the one who may have the greatest reason to kill him.  K'traal, winding between opponents with an eye for revenge, found Darksong, the one who slayed Sarah.  Sir Garland, the one who was most reluctant to join the fray in the beginning, now moved like Death himself, he was a warrior possessed, much like the old days in the army.  He forgot all and saw only the enemies to which he must now destroy, it was no longer time for the bargaining table, but a time for dyeing by the mighty sword DeathKiss, which rang true to it's name this day...

After the dust had settled the entire group of The Destroyer's had been destroyed and the 2nd Grelheim turned out to be a changling impostor.  However, it wasn't Drog who stood victorious, nor was it Grelheim or Rashidi, it was just a stand off between Sir Garland and K'traal with their oldest friend Darksong.  Darksong saw the look in Garland's eye, and broke through the barrier to the man behind the steel, and talked his way out of the battle.  Darksong left the blood bath almost unscaved...

Sir Garland and K'traal looked about them, Drog lay on the floor with numerous cuts and a gigantic spear hole ripped through his stomach.  Rashidi was a bloody mess which seemed to be healing over rapidly, and Grelhiem also lay on the floor, his skull crushed in from the numerous blows of a hercules club.  Garland reached the side of his respected partner Drog "The Destroyer" who himself was mere seconds from his eternal grave.  K'traal went into a trance to recover some of his healing ability and Garland, with his shaky figures began to work on stopping the bleeding.  Rashidi, healed enough to move, went to do what he could for Drog, but he, himself, was still badly shaken.  Garland and Rashidi worked on Drog, but bleeding wouldn't stop, it just wouldn't stop... Garland in a fit of anger, ripped off his shoddy patchwork and gave it one last shot, this time would be his last chance to save Drog, the infamous Destroyer.  He remembered once again his military training, took a deep, ragged breath, and went to work.  This time he would not be denied, and he stopped the loss of the Drog's lifeblood.  He next went over to Grelhiem, but alas, his efforts would here would not reap the same result, Grelheim was lost.

Garland built a fire within the old Kobold tunnels and sat down by them.  His blank stare into the flickering flames truly betrayed the flood of thoughts going through his head...

The Power of a Most Desperate Time

K'traal finished his the last of the healing on Drog's stomach.  With a rub of his hand to the stomach, Drog felt at ease.  The "Thanks" nod was given by the hulking warrior, and K'traal left to continue his meditation.  A day passed since the battle, and the dead were given the proper funeral by the urging of Sir Garland.  Everybody was feeling better, and the physical wounds, for the most part were healed.  Drog picked up Melchiems Spiked Javelin and shoved it through a loop in his pack for resale later.  Everyone was anxious to be on their way, so the group of 4 left the dark and dreary Kobold tomb.

The fresh air was breathed in and it revitalized the small group as they renewed their effort to solving the endless mysteries.  It was decided to head to the castle that K'traal had said some guys mentioned, only he didn't know where it was.  They started blindly up into the mountains.  After a few hours of walking, someone remembered the sword that explodes and they guessed that maybe it was somehow tied to the crystal, so they turned back for the Kobold city once again.

"I'm going to try touching it with the crystal, see if you see anything different", Garland said.

*Touched the crystal and the sword begins to light up*

"Stop!" came the shout from everyone.

Garland, not wanting to be exploded upon, gave up on it, and the group headed off into the mountains again.

The evening supper was consumed and the first watch was just about to get started when everybody saw something huge fly across the night sky.

(Next Update)  Rashidi immediately recognized it as a Dragondactyl, the demonic brother of the pegasus.  Clenched within it's claws was a tiny, innocent child.  The faint screaming and crying of the child could be heard from the long distance away.

K'traal pulled back his bow to shoot the Dragondactyl down, but slowing let the tension out of the string as he realized it was too far away.  Sir Garland and K'traal decided to follow it, while Drog and Rashidi stayed on watch over the camp.

K'traal and Sir Garland went crashing over the rocks on the mountain sides, trying to keep the dragondactyl in site, until finally they saw it fly into a cave in the cliff side.  They slowly made their way up to the cave, following a steep path on the way up.

Shards of small bone lay at the cave entrance as the two warriors arrived there.  They scanned the area for danger, and then headed into the cave.  They walked in silence, only hearing the crunching of bone under their feet once in a while.  Finally a lit broke the darkness at the end of the cave and they proceeded ahead more cautiously.  The cries of multiple babies could be heard as they approached a turn in the cave.

Looking around the bend, K'traal saw 6 orcish children ranging from newborn to age 9, laying there on the cave floor.  A dragondactyl stood over them, minding to the matters of keeping the cave clean.

Sir Garland and K'traal jumped around the corner and no sooner did the dragondactyl know it, but it's soul had been sucked by Deathkiss, and it fell to a lifeless lump on the ground.  The children cried even more as the two warriors tried to calm them.  Sir Garland noticed one of the older children in the corner.

Sir Garland reassured the boy in the boys native tongue, and he timidly began to speak to them.

"Will you take me home?" the boy squeaked out.

"Yes child, don't fear, my name is Sir Garland and that is K'traal, what's your name?" Sir Garland replied.

"They call me.... Running Squirrel."

"Nice to meet you Running Squirrel, now, where do you live?"

"In Gildfest, it's...it's that way." the boy said as he pointed to the Northwest.

"Fine then, we will take you and the other children there, are you strong enough to take pick up one of the other children and carry them?"

The boy shook his head 'yes' and Sir Garland handed him a smaller baby.  Sir Garland picked up two of the other children and K'trall pick up the last two.  K'traal and Sir Garland decided to head back to camp for the night.

About halfway to camp, the boy couldn't carry the small baby anymore, and Sir Garland had to wait with all 6 kids as K'traal ran back to camp to get help.

Rashidi and Drog helped take the rest of the children back to camp for the night.  K'traal gulped at the thought of having to listen to one or another kid scream in the middle of the night.  Not only would that prevent sleep, but it could also give away their location........

(Next Update) -By Wallace Not much rest was acquired by our heroes that night, as the children were restless. In the morning it was decided that Drog, K'traal, and Running Squirrel set out to get villagers to help bring the children home.

While they were gone Rashidi, and Garland were attacked by wolves and suffered only minor damage, but this also upset the children so in mutual agreement they decided it was the children's nap time....

Drog, K'traal, and Running Squirrel reached his village by sunset and were not very welcome at the village at first, but between Drog and K'traal they were able to get a small hunting party to follow them back to the camp.

Upon arrival the children were found to be safe and sound in the arms, and next to Garland and Rashidi. Garland was thanked by the Orcs by their universal greeting which is spitting in the person's face, this was not received real well at first but Garland recognized it for what it was and returned fire into the Orc's face as well.

They were invited to the village in order to have a celebration for the return of their children, and they gladly attended. They rested for most of the morning since Drog and K'traal hadn't slept in over 12 hours. At about 1 o'clock the celebration started and they were treated to free food and beer. Of course Drog took full advantage of this situation and began to get himself plastered... well after he had about 22 drinks down he was asked to give a speech (since he sat at the head of the table) well, being as drunk as he was everyone knew he was going to make a complete ass of himself, but we decided to let him try for a little while anyways. After a few minutes his speech rapidly declined, so Rashidi had K'traal make up a speech and he telepathically relayed it to Drog.

Even after 22 drinks Drog figured he wasn't done yet, and as circumstances would have it, he stumbled upon a drinking contest, he completely out drank the guy drinking 16 drinks over the guys 14. This now leaves Drog at a grand total of 38 drinks, this is an incredible amount even for a Minotaur. About 20 or so minutes later, Drog was found laying unconscious on the ground. By mutual decision he was left there on the ground all night.

By this time everyone was getting tired and decided to head to bed. K'traal wandered around town a while later and saw two guys standing over a map talking, but he couldn't understand what they were saying since he doesn't speak gobbley.

"Garland"......

"Garland"....

"GARLAND!!"

Garland awoke with a start, only to find out that the voice was not in his dreams. He got up and put his Armor on. And Rashidi seeing this woke K'traal as well, together they headed down towards the street.

"Garland...Garland!!....Garland!!!!! Come out here, Utu wishes to send his greetings, and you to your grave! Will you let the innocent peasants die for you Garland!"

Garland stepped out of the building, his armour gleaming with the torches that lighted the night air. The smell of blood filled his lungs as the orc guards dragged the wounded out of the way of the Deevil.

"I shall show you your way back to HELL!" Garland shouted as he ran at the Deevil. Garland's sword, Deathkiss, found it's mark on hulking giant, and turned him into mist, like so many before...like so many to be....

The mayor of the town however, was concerned for the safety of his people and politely asked that Garland be gone before sunrise. Garland decided better yet, he would leave right now...

"You don't have to leave with me." Garland said to the rest of the group.

"I'm coming, I wouldn't turn my back on you now." Rashidi said

"Count me in as well" said K'traal

Drog, finally awake said he would come as well.

Our adventurers headed to the Inn to gather their supplies, and set off into the night. We set up camp not far from the village, and settled in for the night, all except Garland and Rashidi (obviously). Garland, in extreme frustration with himself for endangering people's lives for no reason, hacked at a tree with all of his aggression......

(Next Update) -By Rehlman The next morning they woke up to the rising of the new sun in all it's glory, which seemed to bring up the spirits of the tiny group of adventurer's as it slowly faded away the problems from the night before.

Sir Garland took lead, and they began to once again head for the far off mountain range, in hopes of finding something between here and there.  They walked until midday approached, in which they stopped and sat down to eat a little of their depleting rations after an attempt at finding food had failed.

They walked on after that, and were on higher ground going along an cliff edge about 40 ft to their side.

Thump...Thump...Thump..

"Shh, do you hear something?" Drog asked.

Garland, knowing that Drog had a more acute sense of hearing then he, stopped and strained his ears...

Thump...Thump...Thump..

"Yeah, I hear it too, it sounds like it's coming from below the cliff edge."  

Thump...Thump...Thump...

"It sounds like it's getting closer", K'traal added, "we should go take a look."

The group went over to the cliff edge and looked over to see a group of orcs marching perfectly in beat with their spears pointed towards the sky and short swords in their belts.  A lone orc walked out in front of them shouting commands to them.

Garland looked for an emblem on the orcs scale armour, but couldn't make one out from the distance they were at.  

It was finally decided to just let the orcs be, and they went upon their way.

They walked for quite some time, until once again movement could be heard below.

Checking it out they could see that a group of orcs was attempting to scale the cliff face, and were actually doing rather well at it.  The group picked up the pace to get out of there before the orcs reached the top and they were discovered.

They walked on the next few hours down the lightly forested path until sounds of approach could be heard coming down the path.  Garland, Drog, and K'traal jumped into the brush, while Rashidi turned invisible and went up ahead to investigate.

"Ok, it looks like there's six orcs coming, all armoured the same as before" Rashidi reported back.

"I'm going to find out what these orcs true intentions are, after all, we are just passing by." Garland said.

Garland got out of the brush and started walking in place to make it appear he was just going down the path when the orcs came and saw him.

"Halt, what is your business here?" the lead orc shouted.

"I'm just passing through"

"What is your name?"

"I'm Sir Garland of the Western Empire"

"Do you worship Utu?"

"I worship the great Ra"

"Ra" the orc spat with disgust, "Then you must die".

The bushes exploded as an 8 ft. Minotaur, Rashidi, and K'traal stood up.  The orc took one glance at them, and turned and ran like hell.  

"Thanks" Garland said, "That emblem on the orcs armour, I'm sorry to say I can't recognize it from any of the kingdoms I know of."

They decided it must be an emblem from entirely within the Land of the Damned, and walked on for a bit.

By night fall, food still couldn't be found, so the rations were once again handed around the crackling campfire.  Garland and Rashidi had first shift.  

The first few hours went smoothly, but just as Garland was ready to nod off to sleep he noticed a head poke around a tree, soon following by the rest of the person.  The person was cloaked in black and wore a hood which hid his face.  He approahed the camp.

(Next Update) "Garland! I wish to speak with Garland on the behalf of the great Panath."

Sir Garland got up from his rock and Rashidi set down his wizards book and looked over at the figure that stood before them.

"I am Garland, what have you to say?"

"Panath, Sir Garland, in his all knowing has noticed your recent "run-ins" with Utu.  He wishes to offer you a way out through a trade.  One of his greater minions, Lord Ramastis, has choosen you to carry the orb in which I am delivering to you, to the river 20 miles northwest of here.  You are to swim down to the bottom of the river and switch the orb with the one that is currently in it.  In turn, Panath will protect you from Utu's minions.  I know not the reasons of this trade."

"Panath is a god of evil, I will make no trade with you or him.  You may take leave of us now."

"You don't understand, I need you to take this.  I must give it too you.  Lord Ramastis will be much displeased if I don't give it to you."

"I said you may go now!"

"Please, he...he'll kill me..just take it.."

"Then don't worship Panath, there are others w.."

"I must..........Will you take it?"

"No"

"Fine, may God save your soul from.."

"Mine will.  Oh mine most definately will."

The cloaked figure nodded and turned around and walked back into the night covered forest.  

Time moved on slowly..  Garland sat there pondering the stars and every once in a while fed the campfire.  The wind was broken by the trees up on the top of the cliff in the forested area they set up camp, but a nice breeze kept the air from becoming stale.

"AAAHHHHHEEEEEeeeeeee!" a high pitched screech broke the silence off in the distance.

Garland and Rashidi looked at each other.

"You go check it out, I'll wake up Drog and we'll wait for you and protect Rand while he's meditating." Garland said.

Rashidi nodded and walked out of the camp nonchalontly.  Just as he stepped out of the onto the main path he spoke the mystic words and became invisible to the world around him.

He walked on the path for a good 20 minutes before seeing the slain body of the cloaked figure that they encontered earlier.  Gazing over the area there seemed to be no one around, so Rashidi made his way to the body.

Blood covered the cloak around the neck area.  Rashidi moved the cloak away and the wound looked like a perfect cut.  Must have been a blade, he thought to himself.  He searched the body, and found that the glowing green orb and anything else that might be worth money was gone.

"Magis torum nocta dorum rhnie" Rashidi whispered again to uphold his invisibility for the trip back to camp...

(Next Update) Rashidi returned to camp and reported to Garland what he had found.

Garland looked around, as if pondering it a moment, "I guess that's a chance you take when you worship Panath."

Rashidi nodded and went back to reading his book of wizardry, and Drog settled back in to go back to sleep.

Morning came at last to Drog as he stoked the fire and broke open the jar of berries.  Garland woke up then, and he went to break K'traal of his meditation, and they all enjoyed the berry breakfast.  

After putting out the fire, the group started walking once again....

********************The Adventures of Landrin and Allanon Continued*******************

Lean left, lean right, hold tight, brace for impact!!!  Another flawless landing.

"You're getting better at riding on my back Landrin, specially those landings.  I remember the first time we landed you nose dived straight into the bushes" Allanon, the great-horned Dragon said.

Landrin rubbed the bump on his forehead, "Yeah, I won't be doing that again.  Say, what do you think was going on back there with that army.  I didn't think there were any "armies" in the Land of the Damned."

"That army belongs to a man they call Chantos.  He is the one that Necrom betrayed us for, the castle we flew over was also his, it's call Drake Castle.  We will soon be nearing the Lifeblood River where we will wait for whomever you are looking for.  They will find us there."

"Why, how is that?" K'traal inquired

"It is said that the Lifeblood River was put in the Land of the Damned a long time ago by Utu himself as a counter to the evil in the land and it naturally attracks good.  You see, Utu, unlike most of the evil gods, understood that in order for the life cycle to continue here, you needed things to live long enough to reproduce, the river offers that chance...

"The river has survived to this day because of 2 defences it has.  One, to all evil the water and steam that rises will feel like acid against their body.  Only those whose hearts are pure are able to enter.  Two, the river also cancels out all types of spell magic, like an anti-magic cloud if you've ever heard of one of them." Allanon explained...

"We we go there then and wait" K'traal said.

The two took off into the sky once more and flew for the Lifeblood River.

They arrived a bit later on, walking most of the way to avoid attention. The two then set up camp and began to wait...

********************  Back to your regular sceduled story line ****************

"We've been walking all day, let's rest for a while" K'traal said.

"It's supper time anyway, what's on the menu tonight K'traal?" Garland asked.

"Let's see, we have some old rations, mystery fruit, or jarred berries" K'traal replied as he peered into his sack.  "Oh wait, our mystery fruit is now mystery mold."  K'traal took out the small sack filled with fruit and dumped it outside of camp.

"Berries is fine I guess.." Rashidi said all too unenthusiastically.

K'traal popped the lid off and passed around the jar.

K'traal always looked down at the ground or closed his eyes when it was Drog's turn to eat the berries.  The look of red berry juice splattered across Drog's face just wasn't all that appitizing to him.

The jar came around again, and K'traal shoved it back in his pack.  The group took off down the path once again.

After a while Garland's stomach started feeling quezy, so they decided to stop for the night.  Camp was set up, and Garland was making trips back and forth into the forest.

"To many berries there ay Garland?" Drog said.

Garland looked up at him, and saw a rare smile on the "Destroyer's" face, and gave him a smirk back.  

He was just going for a third time when recognized a tree from back in his days with the Western Empire.  

Ah, I'm saved, a Sapladnite tree.  Garland thought to himself.  He pulled out his knife and dug up the ground a bit to find a root and cut it off.  He diced it up in the boiling water over the campfire and ate it.  His stomach began to feel better...

The campfire died down and everybody was just heading to sleep when Drog heard the snap of a twig.  He told everybody to be quiet and he looked around.  

Just then a skeleton appeared in sight, and then another, and yet another... all in all, about 20 skeletons came rushing into camp swinging their swords wildly.

(Next Update)  Drog pulled out his two mighty axes, and the others pulled out there own armoury and met the charging skeletons face to skull.

The battle raged on for only mere seconds, yet the outcome had the warriors standing victorious over the shattered bones of the skeletons around them.  K'traal quickly went to healing the wounds that were taken in the battle, and the rest cleared the bones out of the camp to get some sleep.

Sir Garland and Rashidi were lying around during first shift taking their watch when the sound of an approaching figure through the forest gave them a startle.  They jumped to their feet, grabbed their weapons, and waited to see who it would be.

The figure approached, draped in a black cloak.

"I have something for Sir Garland, complements of Panath", the cloaked figure stated as he drew out the green glowing orb once again.

"It's already been decided that I don't want the orb, now go back from where you came" Sir Garland retorted.

"It's not a question of want Garland, it's one of need.  You need this orb, I need you to take it, and place it in the bottom of the river 12 NW of here, now make the trade, Panath offers you freedom from Utu's oppression."

"Panath is also a god of evil, I will not accept his word, nor yours, now leave!"

"You don't understand, I must give this to you or he'll.."

"He'll what?  Kill you?  Forsake Panath, let the Church of Light be your savior."

"Panath allows may blade to fly like I've never seen before.  I cannot leave him, please just take the orb, I don't care what you do with it, just take it."

"If you give it to me, there is no deal, and I will most likely toss it off into the woods."

The figure walks up to Sir Garland, hands him it, and runs back into the woods.

Sir Garland wound up to whip it into the woods, when Rashidi caught his arm, and beckoned for Garland to let him see it.

Garland handed it over, and Rashidi sat down and started turning it about, looking at it.

Sir Garland went back to his watch after giving up the orb, and looked off into the forest.  He turned around again as he heard Rashidi stand up.

Rashidi lofted the orb into the air, and launched a fireball into the orb.  The orb blew up with green liquid flying everywhere.  Rashidi quick dodged out of it's way, and Sir Garland leaped onto K'traal knocking them both out of the way, however Drog was covered in it.  

Drog started stripping off his clothes as he could hear the sizzling noise around him from the liquid bubbling on the ground.  Camp was quickly picked up and moved to a different location.

The next morning, everybody woke up and it was decided that they would begin to head back into the mountains.  They ate some berries and were off on their way.

They traveled for most of the day, searching for food here and there, however, coming up only partially successful.

The next day they were traveling even furthur through the mountains...

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH" a gut wretching scream of pain suddenly erupted through the mountains.  The scream continued..

"What the Hell!?" Garland shouted.

Drog shrugged his shoulders, and the he pointed off in the west direction, pin-pointing the way in came from.  

"Let's go check it out!" Garland shouted once again over the screaming.

They started running up through the rocky valleys in the mountains until they reached the crest of one of them and saw a pike with a head on it screaming... only no body was attached...  (More later on)

-Here ended our ventures for the night, thus I can tell you no more.  Check back again to find out about more gruesome displays, and heartbreaking tales.

It is highly recommended if you haven't been here before that you start reading where I first started keeping logs, with the Tournament (we had both Heroe's and Palladium guys in that one, so don't get confused :))  And after reading that just following Heroe's link.  If you just want to get the gist of what's going on read our last adventures Triple Threat and Truck'n Turtles which lead right up to this adventure.  You'll want to read these otherwise ya might get lost because I often make reference to past adventures, and assume you know stuff from those adventures.

(What happened to that last adventure?  It's moved because of load up time, you can see it here)

Doomsday Bears (Once again written up from the Metal Juggernaut's point of view)

Status of the Group:

Zero casualties last adventure on our side, although I fear we were quite banged up by the end of it.  Two months have passed and the gang has gone back to work (a rare occasion these days).  The Metal Juggernaut and Dark Rider are still living the life of super heroes.  They've both managed to make quite a few "friends" which will surely they will regret someday (Tango & Cash?).  Shroud's still in the background making us all look good and of course getting us out of most of our jams.  The Hunter has found a permanent home here at the base, and I truly hope this walking space age arsenal sticks around for a good long time.

Where's Dark Rider?

Ring..Ring..Ring!

*God damn phone* I thought as I pried my eyes open to check the clock, *Two o'clock! Damn, this had better be good*

"Yello?" I mumbled.

"Good morning Metal Juggernaut," Det. Miller said, "there's something going down over at the Liberty Island, we need you guys."

"Yawn, Alright, we'll be down in a minute or two" Click, the receiver fell back on the phone.

I got out of bed, and went to wake up Shroud, Hunter, and Dark Rider, only when I got to Dark Rider's room he wasn't there.  I slipped on my patented outfit, and went out to the garage to see if Dark Rider was on another one of his all night porno kicks.  You would know what I mean if you saw the stack in his part of the garage.  His super van was gone...

"Dark Rider!" I called out.

No answer..., moments later Shroud and Hunter came tripping out and I flopped into Hunter's "remodeled" lambourghini, Shroud said he'd fly.

"Looks like we'll be going without Dark Rider tonight", I said as we Hunter put the petal to the floor.

Liberty Island

We arrived at Liberty Island to see this monstrously huge 25ft tall robot with tanks treads for legs rolling up onto Liberty Island heading right for the Statue of Liberty.  Throngs of people waited on shore, being held back by the police, around them entire trees were uprooted.

Det. Miller came running up to us and guided us through the crowd and onto a police boat to be brought across. I jumped on the police boat, and then suddenly realized I never grabbed my gun or my katana's.  All I had was my cell phone.  I gave Dark Rider a call on his cell phone while we were heading over, no answer.  Then I gave Dark Rider's super van a call, also no answer.

We got across to the Island and we saw 2 other boats as we docked which Miller explained as one being used by the police to come across and the other was used by the Protectors group (Protector, Pancho Villa, and Lukewarm).

We climbed off the boat, and immediately Shroud and I loosed fireballs at the robot, while Hunter shot his laser rifle at it.  None of our blows seemed to do any damage, in fact it didn't even notice us and ventured farther on to the Statue.

"I'm going to go check it out!" Shroud shouted as he took off invisible.

Moments later he returned.

"There's a compartment door on the platform above the treads, get to it, I'm going to protect the statue!" he shouted and took off once again.

I started running for the back of the metal beast, and gave Hunter a "you know where I'll be" look on the way there.  I climbed up on the platform, the robot still didn't seem to care, either that or it didn't notice.  A quick infrared scan revealed that all it's optics were on it's head.

I reached down to rip open the compartment door to get at the people inside, but just then the robot lurched to a halt.  An arm came swinging back at me, and remembering what happened to those trees back there, I ran like hell!

I got back to Hunter and just then I see Dark Rider's Super Van coming through the sky.  He landed right next to us and opened the door.

"Hey, one of you guys man the turret (refering to main gun mounted on van) and lets waste it!" he yelled.

Hunter and I looked at each other, and I nodded for him to go do it.  He gladly accepted and hopped into the van.  They went back up into the sky, and started making passes by the robot shooting their full arsenal at the robot, yet it only seemed to give the robot scratches.

The robot was getting too close to the statue for us to wait much longer.  I ran for the robot's compartment again, and hopped up on to the main platform.  Dark Rider unleashed a cloud of smoke around the robot's head at that moment.

Just then I got an idea.  I called up Dark Rider and told him I wanted him to give me the tow rope and we'd drag this sucker back into the water.  However, he informed me that it was just a bit too large for that.

I sat there thinking, not wanting to get it's attention and then I spoke into the phone again.

"Dark Rider, give me the tow rope and I'll hook it up to the compartment door and then we can rip it off and get in there and shut this sucker off", I shouted.

"Impossible man, the tow ropes not automatic, I'd have to go outside... wait, I'll call Shroud up and have him do it."

"He's on his way" Dark Rider shouted after a couple of seconds.

Already I could here the monster beat on the statue, Shroud must of had to let down his force fields to get the tow rope.  A minute later Shroud came down with the rope and passed it off to me, and took off again.  I quick latched it to the compartment door and gave it a good tug.

"GOOOOOOO!!!" I yelled over the phone.

The rope slammed taunt, and was on the verge of breaking.  The robot whirred around and grabbed a hold of the rope.  I could just hear the door creaking.  The robot whirled the van around and sent it flying, which in turn caused the door to go whipping off.

I jumped down into the compartment to find two empty chairs and a monitor.  The rest of the walls were made of metal.  I figured the "brain" would be towards the top so I started whaling on the ceiling, slowly making a dent in it.  With each hit I made I could hear the robot getting sprayed with fire from the van, and I could hear it pound upon the statue.  I hit harder and harder, until I finally got a little hole started.

Just then Shroud came down to join me and we started beating on the ceiling until we could climb up into the wiring.  Up there I could see a main black box that all the wiring went too.  I used my vast knowledge of electricity and ripped the damn box right out of the wires ;)  Luckily nothing exploded when I did or me and Shroud would  have been toast.

The whole robot ground to a halt.  We jumped outside to see it slumped over and people cheering like crazy from the shore.  Dark Rider landed the van and we congratulated each other with that awesome feat of teamwork.

Museum

We just finished celebrating and were heading to the boat when Detective Miller came running up to us,

"Guys, while this was happening the New York Museum was robbed!!!"

(Next Update) "Ah shit, this always happens..." I mumbled

"Pretty expensive decoy, wouldn't you say?" Shroud mentioned.

We decided we wanted to check out the museum, and we'd think about it on the way over there.  I hopped into Det. Miller's squad car, and he lead the way.

When we got there, we were told the door was never touched and the guards never even heard a thing.  All in all, a few million bucks were stolen in paintings, sculpture's, and other artwork.  The only thing that could mean was that the something was ontop of the building...

We started checking out the place, their were knife cuts in all of the security camera's, and Dark Rider noticed some quick drying plaster on one of the walls.  Shroud and I found an air duct of some sort on top of the building, which lead to the other side of the quick drying plaster, so it had to be from the top.

We watched the footage taken before the camera's were destroyed, and all it showed was a lone dark figure walking down the hall in the museum.. Big help...

We decided we wouldn't find anything more here, so we took off for the base to get a little more sleep.  Driving on the way back, I was thinking to myself that it could have been Dark Rider who pulled the heist.  *From what he's shown of himself, it was entirely out of his normal persona, but what do I really know about the guy...  He's the only one who could have hovered over the museum with his van and not be noticed, a helicopter would have woken up the neighborhood.  And what was with his being gone at 2 o'clock in the morning...   Ahhh wait... Dark Rider couldn't have done it, he would have either disabled the cameras or shot them with one of his guns with a silencer on it... He wouldn't cut it with a knife, besides he doesn't own... oh wait, The Machete....nah, couldn't be him... well who the heck is it then, the only other person that could pull that off is somebody who can just teleport in and out of places..... wait maybe the ninjas..what was the name of that painting that was stolen?...it was painted by some Salvador guy.  Nighthawk's real last name is Salvador and he would use knives to kill the cameras...  Connection? Probably not...*

To much to think on..I went back to bed.

The next morning I got up and drove on down to the police station so I could get the camera footage so Larold could take a look at it and maybe clear up the picture a little.  Det. Miller made a copy of it, and gave the original to me.  I quick dropped off the copy and headed to work for the morning.

M.I.A.

After work, we all went out on our usual patrols.  Dark Rider was going to Central Park, Shroud decided to check out the harbor, Hunter went into the streets, and I went crazy sitting at home trying to figure out how it all fit together.  The night passed by, and started making calls to everybody to see if they came up with anything.  Shroud and Hunter both found a whole lotta nada, but when I called Dark Rider, his phone rang for awhile, the the line went dead.  I quick called his van, and that phone went on ringing...  I quick called back the other guys and told them to meet me out at Central Park.

Ah yes, N.Y.C.'s beacon of hope, green space if you will, all turned sour by the crooks, thieves and other miscreants... Lovely Central Park.

As I pulled up to one of the entrances I saw Hunter and Shroud waiting for me.  I got out of the infamous Hippy-mobile, locked the doors tight, and joined them.  We walked into the park for a ways, until we saw a hot dog vendor just closing up shop.  We went and asked him if he'd seen Dark Rider, and he said that he'd sold him a hot dog a few hours ago.  Walking farther down the pathway, we came across the Super van.  There didn't seem to be any structural damage, but the doors were locked so we couldn't get inside to take a look around.

After a little searching around we came across his gun... after that, we didn't know what to do, so we just took off looking around the park a bit with no luck, and then went home for the night.

The next day Dark Rider still hadn't shown up, but with nothing we could do about it, we all went to work.  About midday I got a call from an old man who introduced himself as a martial arts instructor at Shroud's school.  He said that earlier, somebody came in an forced Shroud into a car, and drove off.

I didn't want to believe him as I hung up my phone.  I decided to give Shroud a call anyway.

Ring..Ring...Ring..drrrrrrrrrrrr, the signal went dead.

I left work and gave Hunter a call right a way.  We both met back at the base, and he produced a tracker device.

"Here, wear this, if either one of us gets taken, we'll know where the other person went.  I left Larold with the tracker device."

I took the device from him and threw it into the fifth (key) pocket in my jeans, and I went off to patrol some.  Hunter said he was going to hang back tonight at the base.  I traveled around the city, checking Central Park again, and just checking everywhere until I finally got tired and went back to the base.

When I got to the base the door was wide open.  The place was trashed and Hunter was gone.  I searched all over the place, looking for clues, I finally found an open book with the page turned to the Vampires section.

"Nooooo! Ezekiel!!! Ah, Stupid!  Why didn't I think of that!" I shouted at no one.  I was royally ticked.  I gave Larold a call and him track The Hunter, only he said he didn't get anything, they must be out of range.

I jumped into the Hippy-Mobile and I grabbed the tracker from Larold, and I just started driving around the city..  I drove for hours down all the major highways, listening for the faint beep from the tracker.

Beep..Beep... It finally came.  I headed in the right direction, and finally had to park the Hippy-mobile outside of some cheesy old antique shop.  I went in there and there was an old lady who kept staring at me.  After sufficiently looking around the place, and the threat of calling the cops from the lady, I left.  I decided to head on round to the back of the building.

In back there were stairs heading down below the street right under the store.  I headed down them, making sure to "unlock" all of the security measures.  Once down I found myself in the middle of the sewers, I walked around for awhile down the halls.  While I walked I thought of my last encounter with the Vampire Ezekiel in the sewers...   Damnit, I though we killed him off, and I'd still like to know where he got the cash for his robot distraction...

I rounded the corner, seeing to vampires walking toward's me.

"Ah fuck, there he is.."  They shouted as they turned around and ran.

*So much for the element of surprise* I thought as I took off after them..  They lead me through a few twists and turns until I came bounding into a room with all 3 of my friends tied up in chairs, and a whole bunch of vampires...  This time however, I was prepared..

I drew out the wooden stakes that I grabbed from Dark Rider's stuff right before leaving...

After a few moments of taking down a few of the vampiric bastards, Ezekiel grabbed Shroud before I could do anything about it.  The bastard held a rather large gun to his head and warned us to back down or else partner in crime fighting would take his last breath.  We could only stand there as a frightened Shroud was taken away by one of our mortal (or is that Immortal) enemies.

(Next Update)  I ran after Ezekiel for awhile, but finally lost him somewhere in the sewers.  I went up to street level and ran back to the Hippy mobile to find Dark Rider and the Hunter piling up artwork by it while smoke lofted up from the stairs below.

"What the hell's going on?" I shouted to them

"Dark Rider started the vampire bodies on fire, but we forgot to get the art out first."

"Well that sucks, hurry up and get it, I'll call the fire department and Det. Miller."

While they pulled up the remaining art from the fire, I popped open the back and started piling it in there so we could take it to the police station.  I also got the Fire Dept. to come on down as well as some of Det. Miller's underlings.  

Before I knew it, I was driving Dark Rider, Hunter, and load of art back to the police station with the police car leading the way.  We dropped off the art, and then we dropped off Dark Rider so he could get his Super Van, and finally we went home.

Later on that night, we went on patrols, I was cruise'n down the avenue listen'n to my groov'n tunes when my phone rang.  Dark Rider was on the other end and he told me that there was a car crash I should come check out.  I got the street names and was about to call up the Hunter when I remembered that his phone was destroyed from earlier.

I arrived at the crash to find a mob of police around trying to keep the area clear.  I managed to push my way through the crowd, and got to the car.  It looked exactly like Ezekiels old car before it got trashed.  I asked around about Shroud, but nobody knew where he was, and then I did a quick search of the car turning up nothing.

I went back out on my patrols when I got another phone call.  Only they wanted to talk to Dark Rider.  I gave him Dark Rider's number for his van, and then I called him up on his other line to find out what was up...

"What's going on?"

"Nighthawk says he has Shroud"

"And what else!?"

"One sec.... ok, he wants to make a trade.  In a half hour I'm supposed to be at some warehouse with the skematics to the Subliminal Message machine, in turn he'll let Shroud free.  If I'm not there, they kill Shroud."

"Umm, ok, I'll meet you back at the base."

I took off for the base...

At the base, Dark Rider was already packing things onto his bike to go to the warehouse.  Before he took off though, I convinced him to change a few lines here and there in the skematics, and I also tossed him the tracker device that I had before so we'd be able to find him easily.  I guess Nighthawk told Dark Rider to come alone.

A half hour later, I was just about to leave the base when Shroud showed up.  I filled him in on what's been happening, and our side of the coin, and he told me what happened to him.  Paraphrasing what Shroud said:

I was riding with Ezekiel and he picked up 2 chicks on the street.  We were riding along and then they started choking him.  He brought the car to a stop and Nighthawk came crashing through the windshield, and grabbed me, and he took me back to a warehouse and tied me up, until Dark Rider arrived, and then they just left me there.  I eventually untied myself...and well..

I told Shroud I was going after Dark Rider, but he didn't want to come with until he got his staff back and right now Hunter had it.  I told him to call me when Hunter got back, and I'd let them know how I was doing, and then I took off to search for Dark Rider.

I drove around for what seemed like forever, until finally I got a blip on the screen of the tracker.  Just then my phone rang and it was Hunter.  I told them to meet me right where I was and we'd walk to where Dark Rider was.

A little while later they showed up, and we started towards the blip....a huge office building.  We sent Shroud ahead to check it out, and he came back and reported that it wasn't guarded at all, so we just walked right up to it.

Shroud said he'd start at the top, and we'd start at the bottom.  We just split up when a ninja came flying out of the top window of 15 story tall office building.  He ran inside and we followed him onto the elevator.  We all just kind of minded our own business on the way up.  After making a few stops along the way, we reached the top floor.  Hunter and I jumped into the room to see the Ninja's fighting the Vampires.  Just then Shroud came blasting through the glass from outside.

Ezekiel and Nighthawk stopped fighting for a brief moment and they both shouted, "What are you waiting for, get him!!!", pointing to one another.......

As always, that's all the farther we reached thus far, as soon as we get more roleplay'n in you can be sure I'll let you know of all the shotgun firing, car crashing, blood oozing, blackmailing, show stopping details. :)

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