Sleeping in Ewyernar was quite exciting, because I never knew if it was a dream, a vision or a visit from a god. Their continued presence in my short time here was finally making sense, I was at an important place for their goals, and in turn, it meant I could count on pushing on them in the future for a leg up. Mutual benefits would get me far, and the rest of the way would be my own strengths or my allies.

Yet sleep evaded me, and I woke up feeling groggy, tired and anxious. My internal clock told me the sun wouldn’t even be up yet. “Great.”

The warm tent was a nice haven, but it felt stuffy. I untangled myself from the layers of blankets and saw Yara had rolled in her sleep, dragging Lin and I into her cocoon of layers.

I rolled out and Yara’s tail instinctively grabbed the end of the blanket and pulled it in, resealing the cocoon. I shivered from the rapid change in temperature and pulled on some clothes, my cloak and grabbed my sword, then went for a walk outside.

The camp was deathly silent, the only thing telling me people were inside the tents or blocky homes was the occasional cough or footsteps of a few patrolling guards. The call of nature poked me and I went outside the walls, seeing another dwarf was doing much the same. We gave a nod of acknowledgement and gave each other some space. As we did our business while leaning against the trees he looked out towards the east while I kept an eye out on the west. Afterwards we wandered towards a campfire with four early birds just inside the walls.

The dwarf pulled two crates over for us to sit. “Can’t sleep eh?”

I shook my head no and sat down, then inspected the people in the firelight. The dwarf was some kind of tradesman, with a wide headed hammer tucked into his belt. The other four were a smattering of people. One woman had tall rusted furred ears and a tail, but with extremely long legs and a slender body, beside her was an orc woman around my size with a battle axe in hand chopping kindling. On the other side of the fire were two humans, with matching black hair and short wild beards, their weathered skin marked with scars told tales of long travels and battles.

They were making porridge in a black pot and handed some to the dwarf and I.

“From Fernwood, a border town by Dastow, what about you two?” the orc woman asked, bringing her axe down. Sparks erupted from the kindling, scorching the sides and steaming out the water in the wood. “Swap?”

Maran, Half-orc, Level 5 Battlemage

We looked at each other and pointed.

“Oh goodness Maran found someone to sling spells and talk blade work with,” one of the brothers laughed. He then sent his own. “From Fernwood too. Worked with the guild as a guide and beast hunter.”

Ben, Human, Level 4 Sharpshooter Ranger

His brother grunted and added his own. His voice was hoarse and raspy. “Fernwood. Guide.”

Tim, Human, Level 4 Hunter Ranger

The slender beast-kin woman took a bite of her breakfast and frowned. She took out a gnarled wand that looked like a root wrapped with straw, tapped the cold ground and a berry bush sprouted. She dropped a few plump red berries into her porridge and seemed much happier with it. After a few jealous looks from her allies she did it again, growing several knee high bushes and handed them out to everyone. Finally offering up her own information. “I live with my court, but I ran into the caravan and wanted to help.”

Vesna, Maned Wolf-kin, Level 3 Forest Druid

That explained the tall build she had. After thanking her for the berries I looked over their shoulder to see some motion on the far side of the settlement. Small, hot blazes were sending off smoke into the sky by the forge shrine, with several silent crowds watching.

Maran looked behind her and turned back with a sour expression. “Ah yeah. Turns out an Ishaka priestess helped link the shrine here, so now Bronson and Nadya can hand out blessings and cure spells. They don’t think Borros' presence is strong enough to ward off the undead curse, so they are burning the bodies. Little funeral for the families, if you lost someone head over.”

I watched as Bronson the forge cleric raised a stone tablet with pieces of broken mail, a spear head and feathers from the gryphon. He handed it to a couple and said something that filled them with pride.

“I was out hunting with my companions when we heard trouble. Helped with the gryphon so Emile had the opening to decapitate it,” I said.

“Aye, little bit of magic before giving them the old slice and dice I bet!” Maran struck her axe through more wood, adding it to the fire. She gulped down the rest of her porridge and leaned in. “Come on, tell us how it really went. Elkan had to embellish it a little for the folks to make it family friendly.”

“First,” I held up my hand. “What is the undead curse?”

Ben pointed at the sky, then the ground. “Dark gods rule here, lots of cultists. The big six are powerful, sure, but minor gods can look out for little guys like us. They promise power for service and it's easy to get. One of them is symbolized as the raven of death. Does a great job making sure all spirits, even his foes get to the afterlife. However, he likes to let his followers puppet the vacant bodies. You either need to get blessed to stay dead, buried deep or burnt.”

Tim, scowled and touched a knife scar on his neck. “Other dark gods use it too. Trapped crypts. Don’t grave rob here.”

“Oh my- damn it,” I slapped my forehead. “So that’s where the undead gnomes came from.”

Maran clapped her hands. “Come on, tell us some stories. I'm bored to tears here.”

“Early on my companion and I dealt with gnomes and buried them. Some time later when I was hunting…” I paused making sure my tired mind wasn’t about to slip letting on why Yara and I were on that hunting trip. I pulled up my pant leg to show the faint magically healed scar. “Little undead bugger stabbed me.”

Maran pushed for more and so we swapped battle tales. They were very keen to listen about the gryphon battle their friends had been in, and I didn’t hold back the details about how savagely we had to hit the beast to finally fell it. Maran was interested in checking out my wands and noted how they were well made. She suggested I get some porous mana crystals, a type that soaked up ambient magic to give wands daily mana recharging.

As for their own tales they were part of a small town that trained fighter guild members and rangers. With abundant beasts, both mundane and magical, that liked to get into the farm lands there were easy quests and bounties to find for hunters. There were also a lot of ruined dwarven forts, old settlements they left and buried keeper dungeons all over the place here. Dungeon delving was a popular hobby, but it didn’t come without risks as Tim pointed out.

My own little tale of the four keepers dungeon sent Maran cackling with delight. If she had the same option she would have sent the whole place up in flames too. Luckily none of them really pushed to ask why I was there, and I paid them the same respect. Everyone had their reasons for kicking down some abandoned doors for a bit of loot.

As for the beast hunts, Ben told me most of the fine hides and beast parts that could be worked into items found their way into the hands of the city craftsmen. For most of the rangers and fighters when their supply of employers went to skip town they decided to head with them to keep them safe.

The quiet dwarf beside me grinned beneath his beard. He mentioned he was a sword smith, and the two brothers had a history with him. They brought him fine magical hides to fashion heated sword wrappings which made his wares very popular. He didn’t freely share his own name and excused himself to help with the cremations, and we simply waved at his departure.

“Hey, want to make some coin and help the people here?” Maran asked.

Vensa gave me a hard look. “We are not even sure why he is here. He uses fire magic, he could serve the dark fire god.”

Maran tossed me her thin spell book and asked for mine. As I brought out the heavy red leather book Vesna scented the air and the two brothers looked at each other then me.

“Ishaka?” Maran asked.

“Yep, crazy blue lady gave it to me. Most of her followers are nice people, but some of the upper management you should watch out for,” I said, handing it to her to read.

“See Vesna? Why would he want to help a dumb fire snake when the damn goddess of magic herself made sure he was handed a book?” Maran flipped between a few pages and opened her hand. “Produce Fire!” She let the ball of flames dance between her fingers. “Damn, I've been looking to find the spell page on this one. Can I copy it after?”

I nodded and checked her book. She had spells like arcane trick, eyes of magical detection, and acid bolt, just like I did. She had a few extra neat ones I studied carefully.

Arcane Ward

Tier 1 spell - costs 1-3 mana points

Summon a barrier around the target's skin that absorbs both physical and magical damage. The amount of damage the barrier can absorb is equal to 10 plus the caster’s level. Each additional mana point increases the barrier by 50%. At the end of each hour the barrier loses 50% of its effectiveness.

Magic Arrows

Tier 1 spell - costs 1 mana point

Summon 3 arcane arrows then target one or several creatures or objects within moderate range. The arrows fly to them, avoiding obstacles and striking them for a low amount of potency (1-4). Each arrow gains one additional point of damage per two caster levels.

Magical defense spells reduce the damage by half, some can even fully counter this spell.

The actual numerical value of the spells were penned in by quill beside the steps to them. There were notes in the margin, like the magic arrow spell being great to over power basic magic locks, and not good against other wizards. There was even a rough design of a magic enchantment to put on a shield or bracer to activate in a pinch.

“So, about the job.” Maran shook me from the book reading and I handed her book back so she could quickly pen down my fire spell. “We are going to scout ahead to make sure it's safe. Several teams are heading out, they are mixing some high level trainers into the other groups so we are the low levels taking the safer road route.”

The winds moved and the smoke coiled towards us. The flames were hot, reducing the bodies to ashes, and the only scent I could pick up was soot. A reminder that the dead were now gone, their souls to their afterlife, their remains naught but ash.

“I’ll check with my companions, if they are for it we can help,” I said. Within my heart I felt a warm glow. Maybe with some luck the rest of these people could find a safe place to recover. “But, I have a request.”

The small band of fellow adventurers leaned in.

“Tell me everything you know about defeating gnomes. I’m looking to get back at them in the near future,” I said.

Maran reached out to shake my hand, gripping it with equal strength. “I think we are going to get along just fine.”

A second round of porridge was handed out and I was halfway into it when I saw a very peculiar sight. Yara and Lin were being handled by three small figures in oversized coats. The first leapt towards the fire and pointed at me. “Found him!”

Lin rubbed the top of the hood beside her, and wavy hair spilled out from the hood. The person looked up at her with a smile, with both front teeth missing, and behind them wagged a feline tail.

“Fine job rangers, you might be level one but you did a fine job!” Lin said proudly. “Now pay for the fine adventurers’ service missy.”

Yara dug around her pockets and handed each of them two silver coins. The three small figures danced around, and waved the coins before running off. Their high pitched voices and bright eyes were all I needed to know, they were children.

I saw them run up to a few adults, a mix of human, beast-kin and dwarves, excitedly handing their parents the money. Maran handed them each a bowl and looked between the three of us.

Lin blew on a spoonful of porridge and winked at me. “I bet those kids could find you in five minutes.”

Yara rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “What’s happening.”

Maran handled her battle axe and eyed Yara’s halberd held by her tail. “Want to make some money on a scouting mission?”

Yara looked around to make sure our little group was alone. “Yeah, I could kill for some space to down a few sticks, let’s go.”

…

The march down the road felt good, the warming early spring air was cold, but with the sun to heat our backs it balanced out. The roadway was full of pits and fallen trunks from storm bent trees. We took turns moving the worst of the debris out of the way and watching out for ambushes.

I kicked over a moss coated log into the ditch off the road and looked over the view of the trees. The mountains were in the distance making a natural barrier, with the slopes below it making a channel for all the water and wind to move down towards the lake that was supposed to be at the trade post. The slopes below the mountain were full of barren fields of tall standing rocks. As I tried to focus on them Lin handed me Burn’s spyglass.

“What? He lent it to us for the hunting trip,” Lin said.

“Hmm, right,” I said.

I held it up to my eye, and I could make out the mostly smooth rocks that were coated in rune writing, my knowledge skill telling me it was a type of earth magic. At first I assumed this was a valley made by a melting glacier, and they had been stones left behind. Now that I could make out the chiselled surface I was wondering who would place the tall rocks out there, they had to weigh several tones each. Something about them was setting off my fight or flight response, and I felt the need to leave, even with them several miles away.

Tim rested his heavy boar spear on his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. I handed him the spyglass and he looked at the rocks, then sucked in his breath. “Earth demigod. Killed by dwarves. Avoid.”

With that he handed the spyglass and left. His brother Ben took his place and pointed at the stones with his short, powerful recurve bow. “To add to what my brother said, those are the killer stones. They house the remains of the dead demigod, and sort of work to contain his power. He can’t go back together, but if you get near the stones, they wait for you to turn your back before they turn you into a fine paste. Basically if you see some standing rocks that fill you with dread, don’t go near them.”

We returned to the road, Vensa was waving her wand, and several dense thorny bushes were walking on their roots to get out of the way. Maran and Yara were sitting on a broken stump, each of them with one of the white sticks. Maran blew out a cloud of milky white blue, while Yara’s was the usual blood red.

“Oh yeah, that’s the stuff,” Maran coughed.

She handed a gold coin into Yara’s hand. I shrugged and stood watch with Lin, taking out my crossbow again. I winced as the glitter now covering it reflected the light right into my eyes.

Lin bit her lower lip as she kept herself from laughing and kept her ears out to listen for danger. So far our long trip had yielded little except wild animals. Birds, a single stag hare that ran, and a strange animal Ben called a rolling quill-pin. It was a walnut brown animal that seemed part badger, equipped with the tail of a beaver and poisonous quills covering its back. It folded the stabbing quills down and would roll down sloped surfaces, only to fling itself at attackers with its tail and force its quills out.

The damn thing was the size of a house cat, but when one shot passed us going as fast as a car it nearly gave me a heart attack. Thankfully it was a rare creature, and it vanished as soon as it showed up.

With the thorny barrier out of the way we continued on. Tim was counting steps and held up three fingers, then made a fist towards Ben, who passed his message onto us. We were nearly at the end of our mission and could break for lunch soon.

“I guess that shrine we needed to find is lost,” Maran said.

Vensa lifted her nose, and then Lin did as well. The two beast-kin followed their noses and soon the rest of us could smell it too. Soot, decay and blood. The road split off into the woods, with a bent, cracked signpost laying in the road. Off a short distance into the woods was a rectangular building with a collapsed roof. Several holy symbols were carved around the rotten door frame, and leaning against the front was a dead man in sun bleached robes.

The wall behind him was covered in scorch marks, with little flames sputtering into life around the soot for brief moments. The destruction around him had a trail, and our eyes followed it, finding three dead men in the lifeless shrubs, burnt and dead standing.

“Dark fire cultists of you know who,” Ben said, pointing at the three men. “Dark black cloaks, red patches, maroon shirts and warlock wands in their hands. Enchantments are ruined sadly. Looks like they defaced the shrine and now it's to their god.”

Lin crouched and looked at the one against the shrine. “So, they ambushed this pilgrim when they were leaving the door? It looks like the shrine is to some nature gods.”

Perception : Success!

+1 XP gained.

I followed Lin’s gaze and saw a bright intact amulet in the dead man’s hand. “Hang on, that’s the sun symbol, to Talok.”

At the name of the god the sun seemed to warm our shoulders more, the light was brighter, and the flames on the shrine were extinguished. The four adventures we joined swore, and all of them had their weapons ready.

Yara pointed her halberd at the dead man. “That’s not a pilgrim either, he's a cleric. He broke the shrine-”

The man moved, his head moved up and under the hood was a picked clean skull. A wave of ants fell out of eye sockets and he raised a hand towards us. All at once we fled, getting into cover behind trees as the first bolt of energy flew past us. It radiated power from it I only felt when Yara used her smite.

“Undead cleric? Ishaka damn it, help me,” Yara swore.

She crammed another stick into her mouth and leaned out to fire a bolt towards the undead cleric. The dead man faced me with his palm out stretched and my bolt tore through his robes, passing under his armpit, striking the wall behind him. Rusted metal was revealed, he was wearing scale mail under the robes.

“Piercing weapons have that issue with undead!” Ben called from his tree. He took aim and tried his own shot, his powerful bow making a sharp crack as it snapped back into shape. “Thorn shot!”

The dead man moved like flowing water, dodging the speeding arrow. It struck the road behind him, exploding into a shower of thorns. It tore his robes, his canvas bag and spilled out several cups, bowls and holy symbols that matched the ones around the door.

Lin and I tried to move ahead, our melee weapons in hand as we saw Tim creeping through the trees and leaping onto the shrine’s crumbling wall like a graceful cat. The dead cleric was busy throwing holy bolts at us, and picking up a wicked looking morning star from the dirt as it readied to charge us.

Vensa called out to him and he dove into the shrine as three globs of fire sailed over where he had just been. The undead warlocks had risen, facing the undead cleric. I bid my time as my heart pounded in my chest, with only a few feet from the closest warlock, I could burst out of the trees and easily slam one into bone dust with my sword given the chance.

Stealth : Success!

+3 XP gained.

Lin shook her head in the corner of my vision and we waited for them to start fighting first. We were in a good spot to deal some real damage, we just needed a drop of patience.

The warlocks instead turned to throw weak fire globs towards Ben, with the cleric kicking the rotting door down to fight Tim. I looked at Lin and shrugged, together we ran out and slammed our hilts into the warlock nearest us. The undead mage brought up his arms, his old decaying bones absorbing the impact as dust and wisps of foul vapour flowed off it.

I ducked as the warlock slashed a curved rusted dagger towards my neck, then lashed out with a foot at his knee. It felt like I was kicking a wall, but it staggered the undead warlock and Lin brought her knife hilt onto the back of his head cracking something.

A cluster of bushes exploded near the other two undead, with Vensa’s hand glowing a minty green magic. The opened ground showed a short tunnel, with Maran and Yara charging full tilt into the undead warlocks.

The fight turned into a series of small engagements. The undead were tough, ridiculously so, and someone shouted out they were level six, with a high constitution. I dodged a strike from the warlock, parried his dagger lunge and brought the blade of my sword against his jaw, cracking a few teeth off his skull.

“Keep hitting them!” Maran called out. “We just have to over power the divine protection they have!”

The warlock missing teeth held out a palm and on the winds I heard a whisper. “Produce fire!”

I did the same, throwing my orb of flames at his. They collided mid air, blasting heat in a small area around the impact zone, burning the grass. I jumped, just in the nick of time as the undead warlock rushed under me through the smoke cloud. I landed on top of him, knocking him prone with my foot going through his decaying chest and getting stuck.

The warlock brought his fists down, blasting out heat as he was thrusted back to his feet with torrents of flames coming out of his hands. The fire sputtered out and I got the feeling he was out of magic as I had only a sole foot uneasily planted on the ground to keep my balance.

I raised my sword awkwardly, and felt my foot get poked as the undead man was trying to figure out what was in his chest. I brought it down clipping the back of his skull, tearing open his hood and matted hair. “Flame blade!”

The empowered sword strike made it further, breaking whatever protection he had and leaving the blazing mark on the back of his skull. The warlock froze and a heartbeat later the top half of him burst apart, raining flaming bones and fragments of cloth around him. I hit the ground on my back, and rose back to my feet, shaking myself off. “Damn I love that upgrade.”

Maran and Yara took turns bashing a warlock back, stopping them from casting spells, while Vensa held a warlock with vines. Lin was peppering the trapped warlock with arrows and she moved into melee, leaving the cleric to the two brothers. Tim and the cleric were disarmed, instead grappling while Ben was trying to line up a shot.

“Delayed Thorn shot!” Ben let it loose and Tim broke the grapple, the powerful arrow pieced the scales of the undead cleric. “Now Tim!”

Tim opened his hand towards the arrow, and the wind gathered around him. He spat as he raised his voice to shout. “Empower!”

The trapped warlock broke out of the vines and was struck by Lin. As it fell it waved a hand towards the brothers, and a dark whisper filled the battle field. Dark magic wove around the brothers, and I backed up to avoid the effect.

Charisma save : Success!

“Charisma save?” I asked.

The undead cleric shook as the arrow was about to blow and pointed its fingers at the brothers. “Hold!”

A halo of light appeared over the brothers and they froze in place, their eyes wide as the cleric walked towards them with its arms open, accepting their fate. I ran ahead and slid, dropping my sword to slam my hand on my cloak’s gem, pointing my free palm at the cleric.

“Gust!”

The blast of air unbalanced the cleric, and when the arrow blew it apart the worst of the thorns were sent harmlessly away from us. The thorns that went into the sky still came back down and I threw my cloak over my head as two shrubs burst out of the ground around the brothers. My head was down and I heard the plink of thorns crash onto my back, getting deflected by my white dragon scale armour. When it was over I rose and shook out the thorns, seeing a field of them around me.

The rest of the warlocks were dead, Vensa was on her back, panting from over use of magic. I had little doubt she was dry of magic and whatever charges were in her wand. The bushes around the brothers fell apart and they collapsed on the ground as the spells affecting them ended.

Maran, Lin and Yara stepped around the thorn field, waiting to see if there were any other dangers. When none presented themselves, Maran tossed me my sword.

“I like you people. We should work together more,” Maran said.

I just hoped our next encounter was less messy.

The party has won the encounter!

+125 XP to Josh

+110 XP to Lin

+100 XP to Yara