Leaving the adventurer’s guild, a tall lanky man with a satchel ran down the streets towards us shouting “Rosetta!”

When the man caught up to us he pulled out an envelope and handed it to Rosetta. The envelope was sealed with some form of wax that glowed the various colours of the rainbow. On the wax was an imprint of Hecate’s seal.

Rosetta opened the envelope to find a letter inside. After reading the letter she started to explain to us what it contained.

“I have to travel to Araluen, it’s a small farm village to the north. Persephone is its patron goddess. I need to reach Araluen within a month and a half in order to help prepare for Persephone’s arrival.”

“But, winter has only just begun.” Zach commented.

“Yes apparently Demeter pulled some strings and found a way for Persephone to leave the underworld early. It should take me a month to reach Araluen, leaving me two weeks to prepare.”

“You mean us” I replied.

“Really? You will come with me” Rosetta said before tackling me into an embrace and rubbing her cheek against mine.

“Of course, I don’t have anything left to do in this city so I’m free to go anywhere.” I replied

“What about you two?” Rosetta queried looking at Zach and Kairen.

“If I must” Kairen replied

“It would be easier to travel in a group. I will accompany you.” Zach stated

We made our preparations to leave for Araluen and met up at the north gate.

Our first few days were completely uneventful. We didn’t run into a single aggressive monster although we did pass the occasional merchant on the road. On the third day, Kairen heard movement in the trees and charged into the nearby wood searching for the source of the sound. The rest of us seeing Kairen disappear ran after him.

When we found Kairen he had his doru raised and pointed at a beautiful young lady.

“Kairen stop!” I screamed.

“Why? She threw a rock at me” he replied glaring.

“She is a Nymph, a nature spirit. You could get punished if a god has their eyes on her.” I replied.

“But she attacked me” Kairen complained lowering his spear.

“Thank you young hero” the nymph said to me. “I wouldn’t normally spy on you except my tree is poisoned and I need some help”

The nymph came out of the shadows of the trees and showed herself. She was a beautiful young woman who appeared 18 years of age. Her hair was long and brown waving its way down to the small of her back. Her eyes were brown and ashen, the colour of the oak tree behind her.

“Are you a dryad?” I asked

“Yes my name is Meriette, I am a hamadryade.”

“Hello Meriette, my name is Elyssa. Tell me what is wrong with your tree and how can we help.”

“My tree has been poisoned, it is old and cannot survive even if the poison is removed. I need some help being bound to a new tree.”

Quest Received: Help MerietteMeriette’s tree has been poisoned, she has asked you to help move her to a new tree.

Difficulty: E

Reward: unknown

Failure: Meriette dies

do you accept?

“We accept” I said on behalf of our party.

Thankfully I had done a similar quest in the beta, this means I could skip the part where you find out how to save the dryad. It turns out that there is no way to bind a dryad to a new tree without the power of a god such as pan. Instead all you need to do is take a cutting of the tree which is untainted and plant it anew so that it can grow into a new tree. The dryad can transfer itself to any part of its tree.

Knowing of how to complete the quest I climbed the tree. Climbing was hard because the tree was brittle and dying. Near the top of the tree I found a small twig with a few green leaves on it. I carefully cut the twig making sure to make the cute clean and climbed down.

After getting the twig I told Meriette to bind herself to it and we searched for a place to plant it.

Deep in the forest was a lake which many hinds were using as a source of water. The lake water was still and a deep blue showing that it was clean and fresh. We searched along the lake and found a suitable spot to plant the cutting so that when it grew, it would overlook the lake.

Mariette was overjoyed that she had such a beautiful place to call home.

Quest complete: Help MerietteYou have overcome the poison on Meriette’s tree by planting a part of it to grow anew.

Reward: title: Friend of the Nymphs

new title: Friend of the nymphsYou have befriended the nymphs and they now treat you as one of them.

Nymphs will treat you as a friend

Charm + 5

“Thank you heroes, if you ever need help just call out to the nymphs and we will come to your aid. I have something extra for you Elyssa.” Meriette said handing me over a small ring.

Meriette’s ringMeriette created this ring for Elyssa to show the creatures of the forest that she is a friend.

Stats in untainted forests +5%

The ring was woven out of brown vines with no extra adornments. As I placed it on my finger, it changed shape to fit perfectly on my finger, the vines curling around and a single white flower appeared on the top of the ring.

“It’s beautiful Meriette, thank you.”

We stopped and chatted with Meriette for a couple of hours before bidding our farewells and returning on our journey.

Due to our detour with Meriette, we decided to try running as much as we could on the path since no aggressive monsters were around.

After 2 weeks of travelling, we discovered a cave. Since our running had put us ahead of schedule and we were only 1 week out from Araluen, we decided to explore the cave.

You have discovered an Ice CaveYou are the first ones to discover this cave.

Luck+2

Fame + 50

We entered the cave and felt the chill of ice from within and a cold breeze seeped into our skin, chilling us to the bones.

“It’s freezing in here” Rosetta complained.

“I’m sure you will get used to it.” I said before enchanting my sword with fire to warm up the area around us.”

“That’s a handy trick” Zach said shuffling closer to me and the flame.

“It’s a shame you’re not a fire mage” I commented back.

We made our way deeper into the cave. The first creature we found was a Polar bear cub. It had a white glossy coat. The coat looked very warm and that bear was adorable. “Kyaa I want one” Rosetta shouted.

Rosetta’s shout immediately warned the bear cub of our presence and it started growling at us.

Kairen prepared his shield and spear in case of an attack.

“No Kairen, it’s too cute to kill” Rosetta yelled.

“But, that coat looks so warm” Kairen said eyeing the cub greedily.

The cub growled once more before charging at Kairen. Kairen rammed the cub with his shield causing a resounding clang to be heard throughout the cave. The icicles on the cave roof started shaking threatening to fall.

The cub having been blocked shook its head after being stunned only to be stabbed in its hind quarters by Kairen’s shield.

“You jerk!” Rosetta shouted, “I told you not to attack it.”

“He attacked me first” Kairen growled.

“Too late now” Zach sad firing a bolt of lightning at the bear cub. I snapped out of my stupor and ran up to the cub starting my dance of the fairy making lots of shallow strikes into the cub. Kairen finished the cub off with his spear causing it to turn to grey.

I followed up with my life entrapment gaining an orb from the cub.

you have received: Polar bear cub life orba reagent used in enchanting

Armour: provides insulation against cold weather.

Taking the orb I immediately started enchanting my own armour which made me feel slightly warmer, although the effects would only last 10 hours.

Kairen started looking at the loot. A pelt was dropped and he picked it up thinking he could wrap it around himself to stay warmer. On a closer inspection, the pelt was riddled with holes from where my blade pierced the cub. “What!” he shouted. “You destroyed it.” he continued looking at me angrily.

Rosette was bright red with anger. “How could you kill something so cute? I’m staying right here” she said sitting down.

“Suit yourself” Kairen said and the three of us walked deeper into the cave leaving Rosetta.

“Wait, its cold. Stay with me Eli?” she pleaded

“No I’m inclined to continue” I replied.

“Fine you win” Rosetta surrendered following us.

We made our way through the cave fighting bear cubs for a while carefully waiting for the mother to appear. We finally ran into a room with 3 full grown polar bears.

The bears growled so loud upon seeing us that the icicles started being dislodged from the cave ceiling falling all around us. I immediately started my dance of the sylph to help us dodge the falling crystals. Kairen ran at the bears shouting to call them towards him. The bears looked at Kairen and started charging at him.

Bear number one was the biggest of the three bears and each strike against Kairen’s shield pushed him back a bit, bears two and three were smaller but, he could hold his ground against them. Every time his shield was his a loud clang resounded dislodging more icicles. The area around us was dangerous and we spent a lot of time dodging icicles. Rosetta and Zach were unable to stand still and concentrate long enough to cast spells so it came down to me and Kairen.

I moved up behind the bears and started fighting. I thrust my sword repeatedly at the larger of the bears barely piercing it’ skin. I had no choice but to switch to wind enchant which wasn’t much more help. My blows were weak barely grazing the bear.

“Come protect me so I can attack” Zach called out seeing that I wasn’t dealing much damage.

I ran over to Zach and changed my enchantment to fire. I struck any icicles that were falling near Zach melting them away with the flames on my blade. Zach continued chanting as began throwing blades of lightning at the larger bear.

The larger bear roared in pain and began ignoring Kairen and charged at me and Zach. When the bear got closer I began praying it by knocking its paws away just before they impacted me. By changing the direction of the attacks, it didn’t push me back but, it caused the bear to miss us by a hair’s breadth.

Zach continued casting lightning blades at the bear causing heavy damage but then, the larger bear launched its whole weight on my pinning me to the ground. I took heavy damage which Rosetta started to heal right away, but I was too dizzy to see straight.

Just as the bear’s teeth leaned down closer to me trying to bite me to finish me off, the bear disappeared in a cloud of grey dust.

“Thanks Zach” I moaned.

I still couldn’t see straight and merely heard yelling until I blacked out.

When I woke up, I saw Rosetta leaning over me holding me in her arms. “I was so worried, you didn’t wake up for two hours!” she sobbed.

“Its ok, I just took a heavy blow to the head. I should be ok now.” I responded with a smile.

I looked around and noticed I was in a room with glowing blue flowers all around me. I picked one of the flowers and identified it.

IcebloomA flower containing the power and strength to endure extreme cold temperatures.

Rarity: E

I held the flower against my blade and tried to push my mana though it.

*triiing*

Skill unlocked: Ice Blade Enchantmentusing icebloom, you can enchant a blade with the elemental properties of ice.

Ice can cause a target to be frozen slowing their movement.

Duration: 10 minutes

Mana cost: 200

“Awesome a new enchantment” I shouted.

“Turn it off!” all three of my party members yelled.

I looked at my blade and saw a huge chunk of ice covering my blade with tendrils of ice cold smoke coming off it. Now that they mentioned to turn it off, I felt the freezing chill of my blade and immediately absorbed the enchantment.

“Don’t do that again!” Kairen yelled at me.

Feeling crestfallen I slowly gathered all of the icebloom in the cave before we left and continued our journey to Araluen.

After another week of mostly running, we finally arrived at Araluen.

sorry, I wanted to release this yesterday but I was bed ridden with a Migrane.

Travelling is hard to write without making it bering but, hopefully you are starting to get a better grasp on the other character's personalties.

I'm thinking Vanessa may be my favourite since she is so easy to write for.